Supporting his outlook, a survey by the BCC has found 46 per cent of businesses expect to grow this year, up from 35 per cent in the same survey last year. <\/p>\n
Last week Haldane, who succeeded Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, attended the chambers\u2019 business council for the first time and came away with \u201ccautious optimism\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho<\/p>\n
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL<\/p>\n
\u201cAround the table, people were at pains to point out that they had a pipeline of very investable projects, some under way, some about to be under way, which would make a massive difference to their own growth, to job creation and to the growth in their local region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Business council members include bosses at Heathrow Airport, BT, DP World and Spire Healthcare.<\/p>\n
Steve Reed, the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, also attended the meeting to discuss planning. <\/p>\n
However, business leaders have concerns, from questions on how planning reforms will be implemented to the skills gap for infrastructure projects and whether they will again \u201cbe dealing with a different cohort of ministers in six months\u2019 time\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n
The \u201crevolving door\u201d of ministers and prime ministers over the past decade put them \u201cthrough the wringer\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat does not make for stable and sustainable long-term planning around policy and that in turn upends the best-laid business plans \u2026 Just think of the toing and froing over a Heathrow third runway over the years or what we do with our nuclear estate.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, particularly in a noisy world, what you want is a relatively becalmed domestic political environment and the government\u2019s majority in principle served that up and the hope would be that that five-year term can be made good on and that will be an anchor for policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut of course no one can avoid the political noise of the last few weeks and months and that plainly provides another reason for companies to not put their balance sheet to work, to press the pause button, which too often has been the story really of the last 15 to 20 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should squander that asset [a large majority] at our peril, I would say, given our record on business investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> having, for now, survived a potential leadership challenge, there is speculation government policy could tack further left. \u201cYou would hope that even if there were to be changes in personnel that wouldn\u2019t lead to a handbrake turn on policy,\u201d says Haldane. \u201cIt is, after all, the same government that ran on the same manifesto.\u201d<\/p>\n Haldane during his time at the Bank of England, where he spent 32 years<\/p>\n ROLAND HOSKINS\/ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS\/REX<\/p>\n Starmer\u2019s decision last week to scrap plans to delay local elections<\/a> was the government\u2019s 14th U-turn<\/a>.<\/p>\n Although Haldane believes that \u201coften the biggest policy mistakes are not the policy action but the failure to change policy in response to circumstance\u201d, he says \u201cfewer surprises are better than lots, particularly when this has had a dampening effect on business confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n As an example, the decision to increase employer national insurance contributions during Labour\u2019s first budget in 2024 was a \u201cnasty surprise to the system\u201d and has been complicated by more recent announcements on business rates, employment rights reforms and an increase in the minimum wage.<\/p>\n Does he therefore think Labour really is the \u201cparty of business\u201d?<\/p>\n \u201cTime ultimately will tell. This government and its predecessors absolutely understand as they should that the dynamo of growth is business.\u201d<\/p>\n But, he adds: \u201cHow that translates into policy, that for me is work in progress. The message given to business and others has not been as clear and consistent on the primacy of growth as would be desirable.\u201d<\/p>\n Planning, the industrial strategy and infrastructure investment \u201csits on the credit side of the ledger consistent with the growth narrative\u201d. The flipside, however, was showing up in the jobs market.<\/p>\n We met on the day that the latest official labour figures showed unemployment had hit a five-year high in the final quarter of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cSo there\u2019s been a sense in which the government on growth, through its actions rather than its words, has given with one hand and taken away with the other.\u201d<\/p>\n Of \u201cparticular worry\u201d in the unemployment numbers was the increased joblessness and inactivity among young people.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause if either you\u2019ve never entered the jobs market or you\u2019ve exited early in your life it becomes that much harder to rejoin at a later stage; it leaves generational scars.\u201d<\/p>\n The risk that the \u201cAI wave<\/a>\u201d acted as a \u201cjobs killer\u201d tomorrow on top of youth unemployment today threatened \u201can unfortunate conflation of events\u201d.<\/p>\n It remained, though, \u201cvery, very early days\u201d on the impact of artificial intelligence on productivity and jobs and for now the \u201crhetoric is running ahead of reality\u201d, said Haldane. He was \u201cnot complacent\u201d and urged greater investment in skilling up the old and young to fix broken work pathways.<\/p>\n There has been \u201cfar too little seeding of the ground\u201d on a skills strategy for UK plc and the welcome industrial strategy needed narrowing from eight sectors, including a particular focus on defence.<\/p>\n For all that, he says: \u201cYou know economists like me, the most dismal of sciences, can come across as gloomy-doomy. But I remain resolutely optimistic about UK plc \u2014 and that\u2019s not blind optimism, that\u2019s optimism bought of spending 30 years on the road chatting to brilliant people and brilliant businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We want to engage with Reform UK\u2019<\/p>\n The new president of the British Chambers of Commerce has welcomed plans by Reform UK to increase business experience in government as it prepares to engage more with the party (Alex Ralph writes).<\/p>\n Andy Haldane said there was a lack of business expertise among ministers and in the civil service.<\/p>\n Nigel Farage<\/a>, the leader of Reform UK<\/a>, who last week named his \u201cshadow cabinet\u201d, has vowed it would be \u201cthe most pro-business, pro-entrepreneurship government this country has seen in modern times\u201d and would \u201cbring into government people with real expertise in their areas\u201d.<\/p>\n Haldane, in an interview with The Times, said: \u201cWe want to engage with them [Reform] on what their plans are for business and beyond. As it turns out, in the case of Reform they\u2019ve already made clear that they want business to be a big part of their method of governing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Haldane: UK economy has fighting chance of turnaround this year<\/a><\/p>\n The BCC is preparing for its trade conference in March and its annual conference this summer where Reform is likely to be present.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a world of five, six, seven-party politics and who knows how things will shake down in the next election,\u201d Haldane said. \u201cBut absolutely among all the main parties they should have representation at our conference and at our table.\u201d<\/p>\n Farage unveiled his \u201cshadow cabinet\u2019 of Zia Yusuf, Robert Jenrick, Richard Tice and Suella Braverman<\/p>\n GUY BELL\/ALAMY LIVE NEWS<\/p>\n Reform has maintained a large poll lead over Labour<\/a> and the Conservatives<\/a> and is seeking to build relations with business.<\/p>\n Sir Tim Martin, the chairman and founder of JD Wetherspoon, called on the hospitality sector this month<\/a> to back Reform\u2019s pledge of supportive policies for the pub sector and expressed surprise at the apparent indifference to the move shown by the industry\u2019s \u201cgreat and good\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/b2385f8e-5d86-4a30-aae1-7d5a0c71b8f9.jpg\")
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