CBI boss: government puts politics ahead of growth

Sir Richard Lambert, the outgoing head of the Confederation of British Industry, today criticised the coalition for prioritising politics over economic growth.

Speaking for the last time today as the CBI's director-general, Lambert said that whilst he backed plans to cut the deficit, "public spending cuts and private sector growth are two sides of the same coin".

He praised the VAT increase from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent, but said that "to bring the public finances back to full health, they will have to be accompanied by increased output and employment - which bring with them higher tax revenues". Without such initiatives, he stressed, spending cuts would at best be futile, and at worst detrimental.

Lambert said that the government's lack of a white paper on growth has been exacerbated by a series of measures wherein "politics appear to have trumped economics on too many occasions over the past eight months".

Read the full report at the Guardian. ·