Office for Budget Responsibility is open for business

The newly formed Office for Budget Responsibility is now open for business although the first act was to shoot down the previous government's economic growth forecast for 2011 from 3.25% to around 2.2%. As a consequence, this could impact upon the massive austerity programme underway and indeed see the rumoured £60 billion in budget cuts increase dramatically over the next few months!

There has been concern for some time that Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown had been "too optimistic" with regards to economic recovery in 2011. However, the forecast reduction from 3.25% to 2.2% will have a major impact upon government income and will indeed lead to higher taxes and more budget cuts. Businesses in the UK are now calling upon the office for budget responsibility to issue a detailed report regarding the amount of cuts we can expect in the future and indeed where they will come from.

Businesses need to invest for the future and look forward within this cloud of mystery although very few business leaders will be even tempted to invest for the future at this point in time. The UK economy is treading water at the moment and we need focus, direction and more information as soon as possible.