CBI urges help for medium-sized firms in upcoming budget

Business group asks George Osborne for measures to boost growth of UK's Mittelstand in last budget before the general election

Chancellor George Osborne should use his final budget before the general election to help Britain's medium-sized firms while sticking to his deficit-cutting plans, the business lobby group CBI has said.

CBI director-general John Cridland says the UK's equivalent of Germany's widely praised group of companies known as the Mittelstand, are the "backbone of the UK economy" and should be allowed to grow further with investment support, export help and a simpler tax system.

This is a good opportunity for the chancellor before the election to support growth and investment well beyond the election, providing stability, certainty and simplicity for the UK's Mittelstand to get themselves on the front foot.

"So the chancellor must reward growing, ambitious firms with the tools to get on with the job of rebalancing the economy and lift productivity. There has been good progress on this front from the government, and the chancellor can now take further action to boost investment and innovation."

Innovation is fundamental to long-term growth and creating more high-skilled jobs in the economy. If we want to really get the full benefit of the great work going on in labs and workshops up and down the country, we need to encourage more firms to build their prototypes here in the UK.

There is a growing pattern of re-shoring production back home and a super-charged tax credit could help keep that ball rolling.