The road to recovery

The most heartening part of George Osborne’s Budget was perhaps one of its least glamorous proposals.

The most heartening part of George Osborne’s Budget was perhaps one of its least glamorous proposals. In his speech, the Chancellor started to bemoan the regional disparities within Britain. Ten jobs in the private sector are created in the south for every one in the north, he said — all too true. One was braced, next, for some doomed proposal for a new Silicon Valley in Teesside, or a harebrained attempt to incubate green energy forms in the Welsh valleys. But no: he would cut the taxes of companies starting up in these areas. And that was it.

It was wonderfully refreshing. Rather than pour yet more taxpayers’ money into parts of the UK where spending has already reached Soviet levels, why not just kick government out of the way? Such a formula has transformed Hong Kong and has made wealth spring from the deserts of Dubai — so why not Dunstable? Mr Osborne’s regional tax cut was modest, but the philosophy was sound.