Bankers' coordinated applause fails to drown chorus of resigned shrugs that greeted the budget

Where was the applause for the budget from the business world?

- Nils Pratley

Well, there was the banking sector, but it was reportedly under strong encouragement from the Treasury to engage in a round of corporate cheerleading after being spared higher levies.

Nor should one get carried away by JP Morgan's coordinated announcement of a new £3bn office in Canary Wharf. Yes, the commitment shows some level of long-term confidence in the UK, but large international banks do not make property decisions on the basis of what they heard one afternoon.

In the non-banking business world, the broad day-after reaction to the budget can be summarised as a resigned shrug coupled with amazement that Rachel Reeves offered so few pro-growth measures even as the Office for Budget Responsibility set out two depressing forecasts. First, that the average growth rate for the economy from 2026 to 2029 will be only 1.5%, rather than the 1.8% expected in March. Second, real-terms annual growth in disposable incomes will be tiny.

One FTSE 100 chair puts this way: “There were no positive themes to hold onto or to build on. There was nothing structural to move us forward. The sense of distrust is very high.”