A THINK tank chaired by a Huddersfield businessman has warned that Britain could be in for a decade of austerity unless action is taken to counter the drift towards a zombie economy.

Members of the Partners in Management forum issued a pessimistic assessment of current trends following their most recent quarterly meeting.

Forum founder David Broadhead, based at the Media Centre, Northumberland Street, said the prospects looked dim for manufacturing and construction.

He said: We believe our manufacturing base has eroded to below a critical mass and is struggling to exploit any opportunities provided by world economic growth and advantageous exchange rates.

It cant find either the finance to expand or the skilled workforce needed and cant subcontract either within the UK as that capacity is taken up.

The finance sector is faced with its own restructuring and re-capitalising issues, so it cant expand or innovate, while the service sector in general is starting to struggle as a consequence of the ongoing public sector cutbacks.

The public sector, if anything, has not seen the cuts that we originally envisaged or felt necessary to balance the economy. Over-ambitious economic growth projections have reduced the governments original cost saving targets whilst public sector spending has continued to rise.

As growth, tax revenues and projected cost savings do not meet expectations, we can see another round of increased cost cutting measures being undertaken soon.

The construction industry is mothballed due to limited demand and again lack of finance and to add to this we face a likely second dot-com bubble burst.

Mr Broadhead said: Economic growth is slowing down now in the emerging nations as they, like us, are facing increasing pressures from increasing inflation.

The United States is becoming problematic too as the money printing exercise there has failed to stimulate sustainable growth and they now face the reality of having to undertake serious deficit reduction whilst facing the stalemate situation of an election campaign.

Given the inevitable scenario of any one of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy or Spain eventually facing reality and defaulting on their debt too, with the attendant financial crisis and confusion world-wide that will follow that, you could begin to think that not getting out of bed in a morning was a serious option!

Mr Broadhead said Westminster politicians had failed to rise to the challenge while the public sector through target setting and other political fads seemed to have lost its sense of purpose and associated specialist skills.

And he added: If anything, this is the decade when people will have to take personal responsibility and return to those positive Victorian values of aspiration and endeavour.

Forum members said construction was the one industry with the greatest potential for UK employment and called for investment in local infrastructure.

They also suggested companies could raise finance by side-stepping the banks and turning to business-based credit unions as a way of freeing up lending and stimulating growth.

Said Mr Broadhead: The disappointing 0.2% GDP figures have confirmed a previous economic prediction by the forum. Although the forums findings dont make pleasant reading for both the short and medium term, it does believe we can achieve sustainable growth and prosperity again but it will take some innovative approaches to do so.