Senin, 14 Mei 2012

Business chiefs react with anger at ministers' call to stop moaning about lack of growth and 'work harder'

Business chiefs react with anger at ministers' call to stop moaning about lack of growth and 'work harder'

By James Chapman

PUBLISHED: 02:12 EST, 14 May 2012 | UPDATED: 02:12 EST, 14 May 2012


Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Backlash: Business leaders have snapped back at Foreign Secretary William Hague, who said they must stop blaming politicians for the poor state of the economy

Two senior Cabinet ministers yesterday urged business leaders to stop complaining about the lack of growth and work harder to drag Britain out of the economic mire.

Foreign Secretary William Hague and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles insisted that people had to accept they need to put their shoulder to the wheel in the wake of the financial crisis.

Echoing Norman Tebbit’s ‘on your bike’ message of the 1980s, Mr Hague said: ‘There’s only one growth strategy: work hard.’

Mr Pickles accepted more could be done to lift red tape on business but said: ‘Government can’t create growth.

'It can create the conditions for growth, but we’re only going to be able to do this if we all work harder.’

Their remarks drew sharp responses, with the British Chambers of Commerce saying businesses were already ‘busting a gut’ and the Government could be doing more, while Labour said it was ministers who needed to ‘work harder’.< /p>

But ministers appear frustrated after criticism of the Government’s legislative programme from some quarters last week, including ­the suggestion by Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King that the Queen’s Speech lacked a coherent set of measures to try to kickstart the flatlining economy.

As comprehensive-educated ministers with northern backgrounds, Mr Hague and Mr Pickles are seen as best placed to deliver the ‘work harder’ message, aimed at appealing to ­voters who are ‘strivers’.

Mr Hague said the Government was boosting enterprise by cutting corporation tax in stages, from 28p to 22p, while also rebalancing the economy away from the public sector towards a more vibrant private sector.

He said business leaders ‘should be getting on with the task of creating more of those jobs and more of those exports, rather than complaining about it’.

He said the Coalition’s welfare reforms, including a benefit cap and the uni versal credit, would encourage work and ‘will be seen in the 2020s as being as important to this country as the trade union reforms and privatisations were of the 1980s’.

‘This is as fundamental as that,’ he added. ‘We’re trying to rescue the work ethic just in the nick of time.’

ERIC PICKLES.

Line of fire: Communities Secretary Eric Pickles endorsed Hague's broadside at British business

Asked if his comments could be compared to Lord Tebbit’s message to the unemployed in the 1980s, Mr Hague said: ‘It’s more than that.

It’s, “Get on the plane, go and sell things overseas, go and study overseas”.

'It’s much more than getting on the bike â€" the bike didn’t go that far.’

Mr Pickles told the BBC’s ­Sunday Politics programme: ‘I think we all should work harder. I should work harder, you should work harder.

‘The world has changed and... competition has changed. And I think the only way we can pull out of this is by us all working hard. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable thing to do.

‘I think we need to understand that we’re not going to come out of our economic circumstances unless we sell to the world.’

He added that he did support tougher Whitehall rules on deregulation.

‘We have a rule, a very sensible rule of one in one out. I’d like to do one rule out, get ri d of two rules.

‘We’ve managed to achieve within my department something slightly better than that, and it’s something that I think is immensely important. I didn’t come into government to increase the size of government.’

Chuka Umunna.

On the attack: Labour business spokesman Chuka Umunna insists the government has 'lost the plot' and is trying to deflect blame from its policies

Dr Adam Marshall of the BCC said: ‘Businesses up and down the country are busting a gut to find new growth opportunities, both at home and around the world.

‘To borrow a phrase from a politician, businesses are already “straining every sinew” to deliver growth. And many companies, both large and small, think that ­government could do more.

‘The Government needs to recognise that it is a major customer, a maker of markets, and the ­guardian of Britain’s infrastructure and skills policies.

‘Unless it acts boldly to discharge those responsibilities, rather than ­tinkering at the margins, UK business won’t be able to deliver up to its full potential.’

Labour business spokesman Chuka Umunna said: ‘Business leaders have told ministers this Government has lost the plot.

‘Instead of listening to British business, this out-of-touch ­Foreign Secretary now suggests that our firms are not working hard enough and that is why t here is no growth.

‘The truth is that this Government’s policies have put Britain into recession when it inherited an economy that was growing and now they are seeking to dump the blame on business for their economic incompetence.’

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