UK needs better skills to win foreign investment battle, finds report

Cheap labour no longer enough to win over firms as other countries invest in improving their workforces

Britain risks being left behind in the increasingly intense battle for investment from overseas unless it can improve the level of skills on offer to foreign firms, according to a hard-hitting report.

A taskforce headed by the former CBI director general John Cridland has warned that it is no longer enough to base the UK's appeal on cheap labour, as other countries increasingly use well-trained workers as a magnet to attract companies.