Mixed reviews for Chancellor’s Report

For Martin Temple, chairman of the manufacturers’ organisation EEF, it “ticked two boxes”. “The government had to meet three criteria with this statement in terms of being temporary, targeted and timely. It has gone some way towards meeting the first two of these with a range of measures to help business cashflow,” he said. As far as the third went, it was essential that government took action to ensure that the acceleration of capital spending was carried out quickly and that pressure was maintained on the banks to deliver support for lending. However, the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) said the size of the proposed borrowing required for Government plans would shock its members. The MTA believed the UK was paying the price of an economy that had been “grossly imbalanced between the service and manufacturing sectors for over 30 years” and insisted there was nothing in the Chancellor’s new package to change this in the future. "The Chancellor’s statement has shown us what a truly awful mess we are in as a country,” said MTA president Bob Hunt. “There is little to help business and it looks as if we will be paying for it in years to come.” In sharp contrast, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber (pictured) said the PBR was “a vital and welcome contribution towards countering the recession”. In particular, he pointed to “significant extra cash …. put into the pockets of low and medium paid workers”, the “real assistance through investment in infrastructure” received by business and new credit for smaller firms. At the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), chief economist Dr John Philpott said the promise of ‘jam today’ would be welcomed by employers and employees alike, “but the equally clear promise that we’ll pay tomorrow is less welcome, and runs the risk of slowing jobs growth as the economy recovers,” he added. David Coats, associate director at The Work Foundation, said: “This was an emphatically business-friendly package of measures, but one which contained some more modest good news for those of us urging the Chancellor to take decisive action over the worrying recent rise in unemployment.”