smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

The British Chambers of Commerce's (BCC's) economic forecast claims government spending is too high and says businesses will pull the UK out of recession.

Published in the weeks ahead of the chancellor's Budget report, the BCC research predicts that total government borrowing will rise to £143 billion, or ten per cent of gross domestic product, in 2009/10 and £158 billion in 2010/11.

David Kern, chief economist at the organisation, comments: 'Government borrowing is unacceptably large. Rising budget deficits are essential in the near future, in order to alleviate and eventually end the recession.'

However, he explains that the need to reduce this sum when the economic downturn ends will adversely impact on the UK's growth prospects.

David Frost, BCC director general, adds that 'it will be business that leads the UK out of recession' and calls for more support to help enterprises thrive.

Frost suggests freezing the national minimum wage, reducing the regulatory burden on firms and scrapping plans to increase National Insurance contributions will show the government is committed to the country's firms.

The BCC launched its National Business Recovery Plan earlier this month, which recommends extra spending on infrastructure projects, creation of enterprise zones and support for exporters to capitalise on the price of sterling as ways to promote long-term economic growth.

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