Addressing 200 business leaders at Thursday night’s Mansion House dinner, Cable highlighted deregulation, trade, planning and skills as potential ways to boost growth.
He said his central task was “to put growth at the centre of the government’s work”, the Financial Times reports.
“I confess to a certain exasperation with commentators and opposition politicians who, for reasons of ignorance, amnesia or mischief, assume away the past and expect that the government can somehow guarantee an immediate, miraculous return to rapid economic growth through some all-encompassing plan,” said Cable.
“Developed market economies can’t be made to grow like the Soviet Union,” he added.
Cable said plans included simplifying company audit rules which would save small and medium enterprises “tens of millions” in fees while he also promised to reduce the cost for subsidiaries of larger companies.
The business secretary also said the government was “bent on planning reform”, hinting that he was looking at measures to address “speculative hoarding” and the “slow and prescriptive planning regime”.
