The cost of doing business is rising. Yes it’s tough – but keep the focus on growth and you’ve got this

“Change doesn’t happen behind a desk in Whitehall. Not even the Chancellor’s desk. It comes from all of you.

“When your businesses invest, things get built. When you train someone, they excel. When you invent new products and services that people want to buy, you change the world.”

These were the opening words of the Chancellor Rishi Sunak at the CBI’s Annual Dinner last week. Words that are nice to hear. Inspiring even. But are they relevant when every business is facing rising costs, renewed supply chain issues and continued labour shortages?

It’s pretty tough out there. It’s easy to feel at least that little bit miserable. But, as CBI DG Tony Danker would say: “We’ve got this”.

We’ve coped with worse than this.

We’ve just got to find a way to focus on growth to ensure we can cope with this too.

So the CBI’s challenge back to the Chancellor – and to government – is consistent. What are you doing to shore up confidence, to help take business investment off pause?

The Chancellor has already given us the steer in the Spring Statement that he’d use the Autumn Budget to stimulate investment in capital, skills and innovation. The language of the Queen’s Speech put the importance of growth front and centre.

That matters. But when decisions to invest are being taken on a monthly, if not weekly basis – business leaders need something more solid. They need practical reminders of the direction of travel. They need commitments – on green growth, on infrastructure and on Digital Strategy, to name but a few.

The announcement of an open-ended energy profits levy – with the potential to bring electricity generation into scope?– is the kind of measure that could have the opposite effect. The government is right to act on supporting those hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis, but firms can’t wait until the next budget in November before they see more action on growth too.

If the government takes the steps it can now to stimulate business investment, it will be helping to put economic growth back in the pipeline.

And focusing on that would guarantee any slowdown has a short and shallow shelf-life, which is the best way to prevent the cost-of-living crisis getting any worse, or lasting any longer than it needs to.

But businesses have to act too.

Let’s start with leadership. Great leadership can’t fix everything, but it does give every firm a chance. And business leaders have had plenty of practice of dealing with adversity.

The pandemic has made bosses immune to shock, more decisive than ever and incredibly innovative on everything from staffing shifts to use of tech. Those are massive strengths to play to.

They’re also spending more time than ever on people and wellbeing. And right now, the CBI is hearing from so many firms looking at how they can best support their employees’ financial wellbeing as they start to feel the pinch.

The CBI is keeping the focus on growth too.

We’ve now got a dedicated hub with practical advice on how to manage the increasing cost of doing business.

This week we partnered with EY to launch a guide on growth finance, particularly for SMEs – who have proved their resilience over the past two years, but who may need an extra hand to pursue growth while facing the current economic headwinds.

And we’re gearing up to our Achieving Net Zero conference in a couple of weeks’ time that will look at how the net zero agenda still makes complete sense against a backdrop of soaring energy costs.

We'll keep the Chancellors’ words of last week in firm focus. Unlocking investment, improving skills and boosting innovation continue to be three of the most important things guiding us as we doggedly hunt out the opportunities for growth. So we’re very much up for the Chancellor’s challenge. Are you????