Coalition ‘will deliver growth’ – Clegg

DEPUTY Prime Minister Nick Clegg will today use a speech in Rotherham to pledge the Government will have its economic growth plans in place ready for the Budget next month.

The Coalition has faced criticism for its failure to publish its Growth White Paper last year but Mr Clegg will insist the Government has taken the right action in taking time to listen to business.

“We are determined to foster a new model of economic growth, and a new economy – one built on enterprise and investment, not unsustainable debt. We seek nothing less than a new model of sustainable growth,” he will say.

The Sheffield Hallam MP is expected to acknowledge the disappointment of recent GDP figures suggesting the UK economy shrank in the last quarter of 2010 but point to positive economic signs from other indicators.

In his final speech as director-general of the CBI last week, Sir Richard Lambert criticised the Government for failing to match its cuts in public spending with a coherent plan to support growth, describing the Coalition as “by no means firing on all cylinders”.