Bosses' verdict on the Brown era

Digby Jones, CBI director-general

For the first time in my seven years at the CBI, we have actually called for a cut in business taxes. If the deal was - I'm going to tax you more but I'm going to improve the effectiveness of the health system and the education system - then business might say, we understand that's got to be paid for, thank you. But taxes have gone up, regulation has gone up, the transport system has not improved, and neither has the skills base. Frankly, the government is not spending that money well. They're spending far too much for too little return. We're losing our competitive advantage. On that basis, Gordon, please cut taxes. It is just so very worrying that, as a government, they talk about reform, but every time it comes to the crunch with the unions, the trade unions win. We in business are fed up with it.

Stephen Alambritis, Federation of Small Businesses

Inflation is stable, interest rates are low, and the banks are behaving themselves. The stability is there in which to set up a business; 4.3 millionpeople now run their own small businesses. The downside is, it's very itsy-bitsy: the nine years of Brown's budgets have made the tax systemvery complicated; there have been a lot of changes of mind. What we are hoping for in the 10th Budget is that there is a pause. The reality is that Brown's enforcement agencies - the Inland Revenue and Customs - have been fairly aggressive towards those business that have started up.

Ruth Lea, director, Centre for Policy Studies

The big word is consolidation. He's already downgraded his growth forecasts big time, and they don't look very far out. He took the hit in the pre-Budget report. This time last year the big story was the black hole in the public finances; now, the black hole has got a lot smaller, but it is smoke and mirrors. It's all a matter of just pushing things into the future. Further out, the forecasts look a lot less clever, and this has knock-on effects for the public finances, and his plans for public spending.

Graeme Leach, chief economist, Institute of Directors

Business likes stability, and low inflation; we've had both over the past nine years. The question is, to what extent was Brown responsible for that? Inflation was already low before Brown came into office. An issue where we have serious concerns is this: if you look at spending and taxation as a proportion of GDP, the gap has closed between us and the rest of the OECD. That's a key factor in our competitiveness.

If you are weak on some areas, for example education and skills, you've got to offset it elsewhere. We are beginning to see the long-term negative impact of higher taxation, and government spending crowding out business investment. We have said he should cut corporation tax by 2 per cent, which he could afford by abolishing 10 tax reliefs. Using the tax system for social engineering is not the wisest thing in the world.

David Frost, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce

I think there's no question that we have had a good solid economy for the past 10 years, but it's also true that the competition from other countries is getting stronger, and our position in the competitive league is slipping. Companies are not asking for handouts or blank cheques, but there has to be some priority on wealth creation: this huge increase in public spending has to be paid for.

Ian Peters, director of communications, Engineering Employers Federation

It's a bit like the curate's egg, really. On the surface, Brown's record has been pretty positive from the point of view of economic stability, and we have always said in business that that's what we need most.

Unfortunately, we have had a range of other problems which have made life very difficult, for manufacturing in particular, not least of which is the exchange rate. We have seen a significant increase in the tax burden on business over the past nine years, and that doesn't help when it comes to competitiveness. I don't think businesses will ever forgive Brown for the increase in national insurance contributions in 2002. It was the size of the increase, and the unexpectedness of it. It's not surprising that business makes a lot of noise.