By Frank McKenna 2 December 2011 at 10:00
All the statistics surrounding his announcement earlier this week must have read like an edition of ‘Grim Times’ to George Osborne. Forecasts on growth, down. Public Sector job losses, up. Unemployment, up. Borrowing at the end of this parliament, up.
He decided, unsurprisingly, to stick to his guns as far as public expenditure is concerned. In order to protect UK Plc’s’ triple A’ rating, he argues that we must demonstrate that we are serious about tackling the deficit.
Many sympathise with this approach, but is Osborne doing enough to stimulate private sector growth as he significantly contracts the public sector?
The access to finance scheme for SME’s is welcome, though the details are somewhat sketchy. Support for planned infrastructure schemes, including several in the North West, are also positive, whilst we are promised a flurry of initiatives in the near future that will cut bureaucracy and red tape for business.
My frustration though is that for little or no cost, Osborne could and should have done more to kick start our flagging economy. Still no movement on the nonsensical top rate of tax. No incentive to businesses who want to employ new staff with an NI holiday. A dismissal of the idea to reduce VAT to 5% in the building and construction sector. Absolutely nothing for exporters, who are among the biggest risk takers in the world of commerce.
For me, the Chancellor is being too cautious. Hammering the public sector only works if he supports the private sector to grow in order to mop up what we were told this week is a huge 700,000 people who will lose their jobs through government cuts.
Surely investment in stimulating the economy is better than money being spent on welfare benefit payments.