A Budget for the future, please Chancellor

That is why the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) was so right to emphasise the need for investment in the next generation in its pre-Budget submission.

Calling for focused support for those aged 16-24, the BCC outlined proposed policies including a £100m fund to incentivise businesses to hire young people; an extension of the current Apprenticeships Grant; and enhanced tax relief to support investment in young entrepreneurs.

A concerted backing for the talent that will fuel the next stage of Britain’s growth is what all businesses should be looking for in the Budget today.

For it is time that we set aside the recessionary obsession with economic data in favour of a fierce focus on the future. The future of our businesses and the talent that will underpin their progress.

In recent times, the quarterly ONS figures have come to be seen as akin to the tablets of stone from Mount Sinai and are habitually met with a great deal of pontification: GDP and trade look good, but what of productivity, the wise men wonder.

The risk of this excessive focus is that as a nation we are forever looking backwards, over our shoulder at the previous quarter, when we should be focusing on what will come next.

The fact is that today’s unknown is tomorrow’s world-beater. Witness the journey of Whatsapp, from popular smartphone app to $19bn valuation almost overnight. What economist saw that one coming, I ask you?

And how many could name more than five of the Wall Street Journal’s billion-dollar startup club, revealed last month? Familiar names such as Dropbox, Spotify, Snapchat, Square and Pinterest perhaps. But what of Deem, Jawbone, Jingdong, Bloom Energy and Woodman Labs?

That list is a fascinating illustration of where business is going, and how difficult it is to know what is around the corner.

The only thing we can predict for sure is that future growth, innovation and success will come from small and not large companies. They are the game changers who will move markets, attract investment and create the precious elixir of confidence.

And to succeed in the long-term they require an injection of talent which must in large part come from the younger generation, with 27pc of new jobs in London emerging from the technology sector.

It should be Britain’s ambition to build businesses that belong in the billion dollar start-up club, but that will never happen without transforming the prospects of our next-generation workforce by inspiring them with the potential of what they can achieve and the companies they can help build.

By backing Britain’s young people in his Budget today, George Osborne can show he is a chancellor for the future of business and not the history of GDP; cementing the legacy of his government as one which created the space and the conditions for business to be brilliant.

Michael Hayman is the co-founder of campaigns firm Seven Hills

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