BRITAIN is suffering “very poor“ productivity and needs to improve its performance if it is to “stand on our own two feet” outside the European Union.

That’s the view of an economics professor at Bournemouth University, who warns that a squeeze on living standards will continue until businesses feel confident enough to invest in the future.

Professor Nigel Jump was the author of a report before last year’s EU referendum that warned jobs, output and income in Dorset could take a hit for a decade or more after a Brexit vote – although no one could say whether Britain would be better or worse off by 2030.

With negotiations over Britain’s exit from the EU under way, Prof Jump said productivity – the measure of the economy’s output compared with input – was the key issue for Britain.

“Our productivity is still very poor. When you’re going into a world that might have some barriers to trade – we don’t know what they will be but they’re going to be different to the ones we have at the moment – how we raise our productivity is the real key at the moment,” he said.

“That’s why living standards are under pressure. They have been now for 10 years and that’s the longest period I can remember and all economic history can remember.

“If we’re entering a world where we’re standing on our own two feet, then we need to be competitive and need to be productive.”

He said the main reasons for low productivity were lack of investment by businesses who did not know how the world would look in the near future.

“When you live in an environment which is uncertain, businesses tend to invest less. That’s the main issue at the moment,” he said.

With interest rates at record lows, he said lack of money to invest was not a problem. “Investment is going on but not on the scale and rate of growth we need to produce a growing economy in the future,” he said.

“What’s our position going to be in the world in future? We’re so dependent on imports already. Are we still going to have access to those imports?”

In a quarterly report this spring, Prof Jump found Dorset’s economy had “performed well through the winter” and the business mood “remains mostly robust, albeit with soft growth rates”.But he said the economy was “forecast to remain in the doldrums for the foreseeable future”, with growth averaging two per cent a year.