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CBI calls for budget to generate surge in investment
Bold action on skills, infrastructure and innovation can kick-start a new decade of growth and investment says the CBI, after it was announced that the chancellor will deliver his first budget on 11 March.
The start of 2020 has seen a welcome lift in business confidence. This first budget of a new decade offers the chance to turn rising optimism into a surge in investment across the UK. It is private sector investment that will lift productivity and enable all parts of the country to share in economic growth. Investment is also the key to building the UK into a global innovation leader.
Private sector investment has fallen over the past couple of years. This budget offers the opportunity to reverse this decline through pro-enterprise economic policy. To achieve this, the CBI is recommending a set of key practical steps.
The CBI is calling for a budget that can kick-start a new decade of growth and investment across the UK / Picture: Getty/iStock
The CBI key budget proposals include:
1 – The UK’s business rates system puts many parts of the UK economy at a competitive disadvantage. A comprehensive review should reduce the bill on individual businesses. That review should be completed by year end to incentivise investment by firms across the UK.
2 – The apprenticeship levy is holding back skills investment and adding costs and complexity to businesses at a critical time for our economy and the workforce. An extensive review of the levy to ensure it can support a wider range of training should be launched and completed by the next budget later in 2020.
3 – The Government’s National Infrastructure Strategy is welcome and should, as a first step, commit to delivering HS2 in full to unlock capacity and transport connections across the North. It should allocate funds to a wide range of strategic infrastructure projects set out in the CBI’s full submission, including the Midlands Engine Rail, East Coast mainline and Crossrail and channel digital infrastructure funding to hard to reach places.
4 – Innovation investment drives good jobs and global strength but is currently concentrated in the South. The UK should establish a network of world-class Catapult Quarters in every region of the UK to build on local strengths, develop low carbon zones and support innovation clusters.
5 – Existing ideas for new US-style Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) should be accelerated to create a longer term, high risk approach to investment.
6 – The R&D tax credit should be increased to 13% from April this year to spur private investment and launch a consultation into widening its scope.
7 – Vital steps on the UK’s path to net zero should be announced, in particular using regulation to ensure that all commercial properties are at least EPC level B by 2030, further develop testbeds for hydrogen deployment which could transform low carbon usage, and fast-track the doubling of funding for on-street charging points to ensure coverage for electric vehicles across the UK by 2024.
Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI, said: “At the start of this new decade, firms are feeling more optimistic and want to invest. This historic budget offers the chance to turn rising optimism into a surge in investment across the UK. Backed by a pro-enterprise budget for skills, infrastructure and innovation, business can help kickstart a new decade of UK growth and job creation.
“And it is investment that will enable all regions of the UK to share in rising prosperity. It will put the UK on track to lead the world in innovation, clean growth and the industries of the future, from AI and robotics to agri-tech and life sciences. Trade policy will continue to matter, but with strong domestic policy, British firms are ready to invest and get the UK into the fast lane of global economies.”