By contrast, figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show business and financial services rose to account for 31.7%. However while the value to the economy has been declining the value created by the UK manufacturing industry has increased over the same period. Much of the disparity is caused by the exceptional growth of business and financial services and not necessarily shortcomings or failure in the manufacturing sector.

Since 1998 the fastest growing part of the economy has been the non-market expenditure on education and health following Gordon Brown’s sharp increase in public expenditure in 1998.

The Creative Industries also demonstrated rapid growth. Software and architecture together contributed £37.4bn in 2003.