British productivity is back above its pre-crisis levels as British workers are at last making more in each hour than they were in 2007.

Output per hour rose by 0.9pc in the third quarter of the year, the Office for National Statistics said, the fastest quarterly increase since 2011.

It also unwinds the falls seen in the previous two quarters, and was driven in large part by workers on average putting in fewer hours but increasing their output.

The long period of slow growth is still a worry for economists, however, and one quarter of strong growth does not yet mean the poor trend is being reversed. Productivity figures are notoriously volatile.