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The Director-General of the CBI is to call on the Government to make 'big choices' this autumn if the º£½ÇÊÓƵ is to unleash business investment and 'forge a new growth story to compete in the world'.

Tony Danker, in a speech at Alliance Manchester Business School this afternoon, will also warn the Government that a 'return to business as usual in our economic policy, at this unique moment in British economic history, would be a mistake'.

He will also say that after the announcement on plans to increase National Insurance Contributions to support social care, the Government must use the autumn to 'flip business taxation on its head' and reward those firms who invest.

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Mr Danker will say: "The lack of detail and pace from the Government on some of the big economic choices we must make as a country, are the biggest concerns for business."

He will also identify four key levers the Government can use to get businesses investing more:

1. Smarter taxation – reward those firms who invest; for example, stop punishing greening º£½ÇÊÓƵ building stock through business rate increases;
2. New skills for new markets – creating individual training accounts to more easily access support, for those most in need and/or out of work;
3. Catalytic public investment - to speed up the development of major infrastructure projects, new industries, and cutting-edge tech;
4. Market making – replicate the successes of offshore wind in hydrogen and other emerging industries and fundamentally rebalance º£½ÇÊÓƵ economic regulation.

On the important the economic choices the country faces this autumn, Mr Danker will say: "This autumn requires big choices. Choices that will define a decade. We’re at an inflexion point. Brexit, Covid, Climate Change – all demand that the º£½ÇÊÓƵ forges a new growth story to compete in the world. And believe me this will be a competition – for new markets, new skills, and technological advantage.

"In recent months I have talked to hundreds of º£½ÇÊÓƵ businesses. Many of whom are global firms or have global customers. They tell me what other countries are doing – the strategies they have, the investments governments are making, and how the º£½ÇÊÓƵ compares.