By focusing on stability, the Chancellor and the Prime Minister have cleared a path for the country to focus on growth. Jeremy Hunt’s Bloomberg speech and Rishi Sunak’s changes to Whitehall departments help to show the government’s intent ahead of the Spring Budget 2023.

Spring Budget 2023

March offers their opportunity to get the UK out of any recession sooner rather than later and transform the UK into a high-growth, innovative economy.

To do that, the Budget needs to deliver action to drive economic momentum, boost confidence and encourage investment this year. 

Conscious that measures must not stoke inflation, the Confederation of British Industry has suggested measures that instead will deliver sustainable growth and expand the potential of what this country can deliver.

In the CBI’s submission to the Treasury ahead of the Budget on 15 March, the trade body has asked the government to:

• Take long overdue action to tackle acute labour and skills shortages – including measures that support more individuals to remain in the labour market, return and to progress in their careers. This includes reform in childcare, expanding the health support that firms can offer employees, and reforming the Apprenticeship Levy with a two-year pilot scheme.
  
• Drive lasting productivity growth by unlocking business investment through the tax system – replacing the super-deduction, either by introducing full expensing for capital investment, or setting out a roadmap towards doing so – introducing 50% from this April as the first step.
  
• Unleash green markets and energy resilience, support firms to be more energy efficient as they prepare for next winter, and ensure the UK can grow its energy security and compete for new green markets and technologies.

The CBI’s full submission. 

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