We must ensure everyone benefits from this recovery

With businesses starting to invest again and continuing to create thousands of new jobs, the picture is brighter. But, though we expect wages to increase next year as productivity picks up, there are still too many people not yet feeling the benefits of the recovery.

Competing visions for the future of the UK economy, as ever, will be a key feature of the major political speeches of the autumn party conference season. As tempting as it might be for MPs to focus on winning the political race with an election on the horizon, we need them all looking at the best solutions for growth well beyond the regular parliamentary cycle.

On Monday we will publish some of our proposals to ensure the recovery delivers growth for everyone. Among the measures we are calling on the political parties to adopt are actions to boost house-building, speed up infrastructure delivery, support innovation and tackle the gender pay gap.

We want to see an independent body established to determine the future infrastructure needs of the UK. Major projects are often highly complex to get off the ground and completed, so a body setting out our national priorities could be a real help to reduce often frustrating delays.

Innovation and ideas are essential to securing future prosperity so we should also bolster the research and development tax credit which has done so much to help sustain our world-beating innovation and research. With so much competition in the global economy, we need to do all we can to attract investment.

Britain is still struggling to make the most of its workforce talent. Much progress has been achieved in getting more women into boardrooms and workplaces across the country, but there’s more to do. A national target to reduce the gender pay gap by 2020 would show we’re serious about tackling decades of inequality in the workplace.

But while we rightly ask a lot of our politicians, the business community also needs to step up. Even with the economy fizzing with vitality at the moment, many people do not believe that business is a force for good.

The reputation of business has taken a hit since the economic crash and there have been too many examples of firms making mistakes and high-profile industry scandals.

YouGov polling for the CBI suggests that only half of people think business makes a positive contribution to society, and only a third believe the majority of British firms behave ethically. These are pretty sobering figures and one of the big concerns that companies raise with me is the lack of public confidence in what they are trying to do.

Business simply can’t operate without its employees and consumers, and part of securing long-term sustainable growth will be about rebuilding public trust in business.

Unless we can respond to this challenge in a meaningful way, business will lose the right to be heard. And make no mistake, business has a lot to be proud of: 1.3m more people employed in the UK private sector than before the recession, 30pc of total government tax revenues last year worth £172bn, and hundreds of millions donated to support local charities and the communities in which firms operate every year.

Last week, we launched the Great Business Debate, a public-facing campaign to boost confidence in business explaining its contribution to society — in terms of jobs, tax, pensions, training. But this isn’t about us blowing our own trumpet. It’s an honest attempt on the part of the CBI and our members to listen to and answer public concerns, to bridge those gaps that we have let grow too big.

Trust won’t be rebuilt overnight, but it’s something business has to do and you’ll hear a lot more from us in the coming months. Throughout the campaign, you will see the CBI and business speaking out more openly about topics you might expect us to shy away from, such as tax avoidance, transparency, delivering a better deal for the customer, making real inroads into tackling diversity, and taking further steps on pay and progression.

So, with eight months to go until the general election, the economy is in good shape. But there are a lot of tough decisions and lots of work that politicians and business must do if we want an economy that brings the benefits of success to everyone. Business is up for this challenge and we hope our politicians are too.

John Cridland is CBI Director-General

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