Across the country the very firms which are supposed to be seizing opportunities to return the economy to growth are encountering the tangle of immigration regulations which obstruct a significant part of their business plans to win export orders and expand into new markets.
One of the fundamental faultlines of the British model of finance capitalism – its failure to steer resources into the real, productive base of the economy – is not even on the government’s agenda. That’s why the prospect of sustained recovery is proving so elusive.
The media is already occupied with pre-Budget clamour: what will Osborne’s rabbit out the hat trick be this time round? But pasty taxes, bedroom taxes, even a mansion tax (which will raise around £2bn) can only be described as fiscal tinkering. What’s needed is a bolder approach.
Left Foot Forward has looked at a few things we already know will be in next week’s Budget as well as at those things which stand half a chance of making it.
