Brexit obsession will leave vital issues neglected, warns BCC chief

The Government’s obsession with Brexit will harm the economy if it fails to address urgent issues such as the country’s “broken business rates system”, the head of the British Chambers of Commerce will warn this week.

Adam Marshall, director general of the business group, will tell delegates at its annual conference tomorrow  that policymakers risk hurting UK businesses if they neglect the need for high-quality infrastructure and support for new businesses.

He will tell an audience that is expected to include Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, and Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, that an “ambitious domestic agenda matters as much, if not more, to their success than any eventual Brexit deal”.

Mr Marshall will call for “clear and decisive action on the high cost of doing business”.

He will say: “Nowhere is this more evident than with the broken business rates system, which saddles hundreds of thousands of firms with heavy up-front costs before they turn over a single penny.”

Mr Marshall will also criticise the “footloose, sometimes low-quality investment that is rattled off in far too many government press releases” and will call for policymakers to focus on “quiet, sustainable, long-term investment” that will raise UK living standards in the long term.

Mr Johnson is expected to deliver a keynote speech on Britain’s influence in a post-Brexit world.

It came as the Confederation of British Industry said cost pressures in Britain’s dominant services sector were rising at the fastest pace for a decade. 

Its latest survey of the sector showed activity accelerated in the three months to February amid rising activity at hotels, bars and restaurants.