Chancellor promises a business Budget

GEORGE Osborne has pledged to continue to encourage economic recovery and support British business in his Budget this week.

The Chancellor’s message in interviews over the weekend was focused on reassuring firms that Wednesday’s announcement would provide the stimulus needed for long-term recovery.

“We have a balanced recovery,” he said. “The message in the Budget is that our economic plan is working but the job is very far from done. That means addressing long-term issues. We don’t export enough, don’t build enough. We need to boost exports to new emerging markets and support investment.”

John Cridland, CBI director general, has warned Mr Osborne he risks damaging the recovery unless the Budget provides long-term stimulus.

“We are at the early stages of a vital, but not inevitable, rebalancing of the economy,” he said.

“Whether we do this actually depends on whether we choose to do it. There’s nothing inevitable about it.”

Mr Osborne said: “We need to carry on backing businesses, large and small, so they can create good, new jobs,” he said. “The Budget will back manufacturing and economic growth in every region of our country. We need to back hard-working people and their aspirations.”

The Help to Buy equity loan-based scheme, which has so far helped more than 25,000 households to buy their own home is to be extended until 2020 to enable an estimated 120,000 buyers of newly-built homes to qualify for a loan of up to 20%.

The Government is also providing £200m to help to turn Ebbsfleet in Kent into Britain’s first garden city for almost a century. A new development corporation is being set up to speed planning procedures.

Mr Osborne has faced difficulties in providing relief for firms saddled with high energy bills but hopes reforms to carbon taxes and a continued freeze on fuel duty increases will ease the burden.