It's the Budget for Growth...or is it?

So, it’s a Budget for growth, which maintains the focus on deficit reduction and brought forth a fairer tax system while failing to tackle unemployment, risking a double dip and missing an opportunity to invest for the future.
And that’s before it’s even been delivered.
The political interpretations of what George Osborne will say in his third Budget are well-rehearsed to the point of staleness.
The point to remember about most Budgets, particularly those delivered during any kind of downturn, is that they have to be neutral – in other words, what the Chancellor giveth, he almost certainly hath to take away.
There are three potential exceptions to this rule (though they’re more likely to surface next year, when the Budget is almost certain to be written with an election in mind).
One is better-than-expected government finances allowing some cash to be thrown at a rabbit-out-of-the-hat Budget stunt. Logic suggests this would be directed at low or middle-income people – putting money in your pocket always works. Just don’t expect much of it.
Second is internal Treasury forecasts suggesting that a pick-up in the economy will yield more tax revenue than government scenarios suggest. Cue a decision to ‘invest the proceeds of our strategy’.
Third is a financial mechanism which allows government to effectively step outside its normal financial rules. An example: the decision to take on the liability for the Post Office pension fund will give the government a one-off accounting gain of £28 billion. In this case, it’ll come straight off the deficit...but a cunning politician might view that as £28bn not needed from elsewhere.
Not this year, though?
If the Chancellor goes ahead with the plan to drop the 50% tax rate on earnings over £150,000 to 45% it will be pilloried for robbing the poor to give to the rich.
In all likelihood, he will have settled on an optimum top rate: the 50p rate has yielded hundred of millions in revenue, but an efficient income tax usually delivers billions – suggesting some entrepreneurs have chosen to take income as dividends or not taken it as income at all.
So while 45% sounds like a cut there’s the possibility it will bring similar tax revenue to 50%.
George Osborne – who is established now as a tough decision-maker who doesn’t play to the gallery – seems unlikely to go for too many stunts. The economy isn’t yet stable enough for that
There has to be a growth message in the Budget because that is the quid pro quo for continued business support of deficit cutting.
In Nottingham’s case, we will be looking for an announcement that our city is among those receiving money to invest in super high-speed broadband (to be buried in the tracks of the tram network).
We will be looking, too, for new schemes which give opportunities to bid for funds.
Government is now desperately hoping there will be no further significant economic shocks this year.
Last year, tentative signs of progress were well and truly snuffed out by the eurozone pantomime, which led instead to a focus on negative economic news.
This year, there is a desperate appetite among business to accentuate the positive. They’ve had enough of recession doom-n-gloom.
Over to you, George.