IoD press release  UK growth is holding up, but the Budget must remove blockers to hiring and investment

“August’s GDP figures extend a run of stronger-than-expected growth, with resilience across the economy and computer programming among the sources of strength. Our own data show a similarly uneven picture: pockets of strength in technology and renewables, alongside product and service innovation and firms finding new markets. But the IMF is right to warn that this resilience remains fragile.

“The IMF has singled out the UK for taking decisive action to reduce borrowing and urged the Government to stay the course. A credible path to lower borrowing should help rebuild the fiscal room needed to respond to future shocks. But, as the IFS has highlighted, delivering that path will be difficult, with the plans relying on ambitious improvements in public sector productivity, and the tax burden set to ratchet up further. Stronger growth would enable the government to maintain vital public services and enact its longer-term reform agenda more easily. Growth must remain the priority for this Budget, with action to unlock hiring and investment.”