Transport, housing and skills are the main challenges facing the UK economy, according to Ed Balls, the man who acted as Gordon Brown’s economic adviser for more than a decade.

Speaking at a Building 100 Breakfast Club meeting in central London on Wednesday, Balls, now MP for Normanton in South Yorkshire, said the current period of economic stability should be used to structurally reform these three key areas. This would make the UK more competitive in the global economy, but would require cross-party support as each area would take many years to reform.

On transport, Balls said: “If you ask what the biggest barrier to competing is, business will say [the quality of] transport infrastructure. It has always been politically easier to cut transport budgets because it is a long-term problem, not like teaching shortages.”

He warned that transport and housing could take 20 years to be brought up to scratch. Balls singled out the polarisation of good estates and bad estates as an issue that demanded particular attention.

He added: “The Barker Review lays bare the scale of the housing problem. Post-war, we have as a society invested less in housing than every other major European country.”

He went even further on the skills shortage, a problem that has been particularly acute in the construction sector. Balls said: “Skills have been the Achilles heel of our economy. Adult skills are a huge challenge – 1 million people in the economy don’t reach the literacy standards of a typical seven year old.”

  • The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education has launched a scheme to help refugees and migrants develop skills to fill workforce shortages in industries including construction and engineering.

The scheme, Progress-GB, has been backed by CITB-ConstructionSkills and will provide access to specially tailored training courses to help workers meet employers’ needs.