This report assesses the UK’s growth challenge 18 months into the new Parliament, examining how economic performance has evolved since the pandemic and evaluating the Government’s progress against its central mission to raise growth and living standards. The economic backdrop remains highly challenging. UK GDP per person has barely grown since the pandemic and has fallen further behind international peers, reflecting long-standing weaknesses in productivity, investment and economic dynamism. While the past year has brought a welcome acceleration in productivity growth, this improvement has coincided with rising unemployment rather than stronger job creation. At the same time, Brexit-related trade frictions, weak business investment and persistent policy uncertainty continue to weigh on the economy’s capacity to deliver sustained income growth.