Spending review must hardwire growth ambition into the heart of government, says CBI

With the Spring Forecast just a week away, the CBI is today urging the government to use the Spending Review in June as a ‘catalytic moment for hardwiring the Growth Mission into the heart of Whitehall’.

Following extensive and close consultation with hundreds of members and over 20 trade associations, operating across every sector of the economy, the CBI’s submission presents a bold and ambitious suite of policy priorities, including large scale systemic changes and funding, designed to turbocharge the UK’s current growth trajectory.

Within the submission, the CBI is calling on the government to effectively deliver against the Growth Mission’s seven pillars to kickstart economic growth by delivering on long-term commitments through meaningful partnership, including:

• Set an ambitious and world leading goal for UK R&D spending, sending a strong signal to attract domestic and foreign investment.
• Deliver on the ten-year infrastructure and industrial strategy and commitment to boost capital investment by over £100 billion in the next 5 years.
• Strengthen public-private partnerships through a suite of modern financing models to support growth across the four nations.

The government can go further and faster by unlocking growth enablers and building on successes, including:

• Help businesses meet today’s urgent skill needs by making the Apprenticeship Levy more flexible, ensuring the Growth & Skills Levy is well-resourced, and making a new commitment to fully funding apprenticeship training and assessment costs for SMEs.
• Provide additional funding and support for regulators’ capacity, resource and expertise alongside the recently-announced audit of regulatory costs in high growth sectors.
• Confidently build on existing successes by extending the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, supporting high-energy-use businesses to drive forward industrial decarbonisation, expanding Made Smarter to support wider tech adoption, and backing the British Business Bank to expand its Growth Guarantee Scheme.

The CBI and its members know the Chancellor and the government are working within a tight fiscal environment but believe the Spending Review provides a catalyst to consider long overdue decisions where public services can be brought into the 21st century. By taking advantage of developments in technology to drive efficiencies, streamlining processes alongside reducing burdensome regulations, the Spending Review can drive better outcomes for businesses and individuals. This will help to deliver a programme for government that hardwires growth into the priorities of all departments.

Louise Hellem, Chief Economist, CBI said, “The UK stands at a pivotal moment. To unlock sustainable growth we must move beyond discussions to accelerate investment through targeted innovation as well as policy and regulatory reforms.

“Notwithstanding the significant strides government has made so far in achieving its Growth Mission, including significant commitments to reform the planning system, decisions made at the Autumn Budget and upcoming changes outlined in the Employment Rights Bill have knocked business confidence. Our economic analysis shows that firms are set to reduce output and hiring and are having to pass on cost increases to customers. The broader economic outlook remains subdued with the OBR expecting downgrades in 2025.

“With the right actions, the Spending Review can serve as a catalytic moment for hardwiring the Growth Mission into the heart of Whitehall. But for that Growth Mission to succeed government must inject business with a serious confidence boost. As an immediate priority the government should re-commit to not raising the business tax burden further over the course of this Parliament. Setting an ambitious goal for R&D spending, making it easier to invest in skills and taking measures to reduce the regulatory burden on business would be encouraging moves that would show the government understood what business needs to see from them.

“The CBI looks forward to engaging with HM Treasury and relevant departments ahead of the Spending Review to ensure the government’s Growth Mission translates into real, impactful action, unleashing the UK’s investment and growth potential.”