Terry Murden: A few good hits but no knock–out blow from Ed on rebuilding Britain

Whatever finally emerges from the talks aimed at resolving the crisis in the eurozone, the arguments over Britain’s answer to problems closer to home will revolve around the cuts and growth debate.

Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, yesterday gave no encouragement to those wanting a reversal of the coalition’s austerity measures, instead demanding they go hand in hand with plans to stimulate the economy and avoid a lost decade.

Yesterday, addressing Labour’s annual conference, he called for a better balance between the two and, along with the British Chambers of Commerce, echoed my own comments at the weekend that a National Insurance contributions holiday should be among the measures to help ease pressure on incomes and to help stimulate demand.

In the final analysis, however, there is not much to choose between his growth agenda and that which the coalition is pursuing. Tax cuts? Boosting jobs for young people? Investment in transport and schools? It’s hardly a radical rewriting of the political handbook.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, will offer his own road to recovery at next week’s Conservative Party conference and will doubtless claim a long list of measures his government has introduced to prompt the sort of growth Balls is demanding: cuts in corporation tax over the lifetime of the parliament; a determined effort to cut red tape that strangles business; savings to employers’ pension costs; income and capital gains tax breaks to investors in growth companies.

In truth, the factors constraining Britain’s growth are largely beyond the control of Westminster and the petty differences between the parties. High global commodity prices coupled with the eurozone and US debt crises will continue to overshadow domestic responses to the economic gloom for at least the rest of this parliamentary term.

Balls said that he didn’t care whether the economic recovery was named Plan A, Plan B or Plan C as long as it was a plan that worked. But he knows his party has work to do convincing a cynical public that it can once again be trusted with the nation’s finances. Yesterday he tried to build confidence and promised greater fiscal discipline. His call for more to be done to stimulate demand is hard to dispute.

But there was too little detail in his five-point plan and too little acknowledgement that sparking a sustainable recovery will be a long process while Britain is shackled to heavy international chains.

As such his rhetoric succeeded only in landing a few punches on his opponents without threatening to land a killer blow.

Natural resources should help Scotland to a prime position

the renewables industry gathers in Edinburgh today in what must seem like robust health compared to the woes troubling other sectors of the economy. It is perhaps a sign of its growing maturity that some of our biggest companies are represented at the Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference by their respective chief executives: Sir Ian Wood of Wood Group and Ian Marchant of Scottish & Southern Energy will be among them. With the Scottish Government enabling and supporting them there would appear to be few obstacles to what they can achieve together.

Their efforts are boosted today by two developments. First, a report from McGrigors tells us there is a growing appetite for the industry from private equity which is filling a crucial funding gap.

Second, a report from Scottish Enterprise reveals the potential for 20 per cent – or about £330 million – in cost savings if the renewables and oil and gas industries collaborate in such areas as installation, staff transfer and operational and maintenance activity.

This could represent a further step-change in the development of wind, wave and tidal energy and does so by merely tapping into expertise and experience close at hand.

In terms of giving Scotland an edge over its rivals this could be hugely significant. Britain, China and Germany are the three largest offshore wind markets and over the next four years they will install almost 83 per cent of the total global capacity. But this remains a hugely competitive sector. Add Spain and Denmark into the mix and it is clear that others regard the renewable energy sector as offering the next big thing.

Since the decline of its older industries Scotland has shifted this way and that in its search for sustainable jobs – through electronics and the knowledge economy to biotechnology and call centres.

But there is merit in sticking to what the country does best: whisky (and food and drink in general), tourism and financial services. Add to that list its ability to draw on its natural resources: oil and gas, wind and waves. Putting them together should be a winning combination.