The chancellor’s growth mission is missing in action | Nils Pratley

Businesses grumble about lack of ambition and urgency as Rachel Reeves continues to shy away from meaningful tax reform

Where was the applause for the budget from the business world? Well, there was the banking sector, but it was reportedly under strong encouragement from the Treasury to engage in a round of corporate cheerleading after being spared higher levies. Nor should one get carried away by JP Morgan’s coordinated announcement of a new £3bn office in Canary Wharf. Yes, the commitment shows some level of long-term confidence in the UK, but large international banks do not make property decisions on the basis of what they heard one afternoon.

In the non-banking business world, the broad day-after reaction to the budget can be summarised as a resigned shrug coupled with amazement that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, offered so few pro-growth measures even as the Office for Budget Responsibility set out two depressing forecasts. First, that the average growth rate for the economy from 2026 to 2029 will be only 1.5%, rather than the 1.8% expected in March. Second, real-terms annual growth in disposable incomes will be tiny.

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