Pictured above: Katie Teasdale
Businesses in the Midlands are calling on the Coalition
Government to ensure that the Comprehensive Spending Review
announcement on 20 October directly supports business growth.
Katie Teasdale, head of policy at Birmingham Chamber Group, said
that the Government must deliver certainty for businesses, which
will allow the private sector to plan better and invest more.
She said: "We are calling for a focus on growth which will
enable companies to deliver a higher turnover, create a significant
number of new jobs, enter new international markets and increase
productivity.
"We expect the government to support better access to finance by
extending the scope of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme as
well as ensuring that businesses can access Export Credit Finance.
"We are supporting the principle of a simpler tax regime,
coupled with a lower headline rate of corporation tax.
"Committing funding to transport projects will unlock
significant regional business investment and enable projects such
as HS2 to progress.
"We remain critical of the decision to ring fence health and
international development budgets at the expense of 'growth'
departments, like transport and business. We urge the
government to reconsider these commitments.
"A major hindrance to business growth is planning. The
planning system is likely to be hit hard by local authority cuts
and the government needs to provide stronger incentives for speedy
pro-business local planning decisions.
"Skill mismatches are a major concern for businesses and we
would like to see strong government support for basic employability
and leadership skills.
"The priorities which may be identified within the Comprehensive
Spending Review could have the potential to act as a catalyst for
private sector investment and growth."