Business leaders urge political party heads to balance the budget by 2015
LEADERS of the three main political parties will face calls for urgent action to balance the national books at the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) later this month.
The business lobby group will urge Conservative leader David Cameron, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and an as-yet unidentified “senior member of the government” attending the conference on November 23 to speed up recovery plans to balance the budget by 2015-16.
The CBI will also call for reforms of the public and private sectors to save £120bn a year.
The government said public borrowing rose to £77.3bn in the first six months of this financial year and is set to hit a record high.
Other major figures attending the London conference will include managing director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn, French finance minister Christine Lagarde and Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Adair Turner.
They will be discussing the potential extent of regulation of the financial sector in the wake of the banking crisis and how far innovation in the financial sector will stay possible.
FTSE 100 company chief executives due to attend include Sir Stuart Rose of Marks & Spencer, Royal Bank of Scotland’s Stephen Hester and Serco’s Chris Hyman.