Virtually all Chancellors aspire to improve Britain’s shamefully poor productivity record. Few succeed. Can Philip Hammond, who at last week’s Conservative Party conference identified productivity as one of the key challenges for his Chancellorship, hope to do any better?

For Britain to succeed and prosper in the post Brexit world, it is vital that he does. Productivity growth – more output for less input – is the magic ingredient which delivers higher living standards. It’s why real wages rise over time, and it’s why, at least in the modern age, each generation has been significantly better off than the last one.

Without it, living standards stagnate or decline, and as we are seeing, political and social tensions rise. Poor productivity growth is therefore an urgent cause for concern.

The phenomenon is by no means confined to Britain. Since the financial crisis, it has been common to virtually all western economies. Yet for Britain, there is at least the opportunity to play catch up, for we have a much longer term issue with low productivity than some of our main rivals.

It’s not just the US and Germany that the UK lags, but France, the Netherlands, Sweden and even Italy. Even narrowing the margin just a little would pay big dividends. If Britain could raise its productivity rate of growth by just 1 per centage point a year, Hammond points out, we would, within a decade add £250 billion to the size of the economy, or £9,000 for every household in Britain.