Cullum backs cuts

Towergate chairman Peter Cullum has backed the Government's plans to rapidly reduce the defecit, stressing failure to do so would heap an extra £100bn on national debt by 2014.

Cullum is joined by a list of powerful corporate heads who argue the private sector will pick up the slack from the austerity measures.

Andy Bond, chairman of Asda, Ian Cheshire, chief executive of Kingfisher and Simon Wolfson, chief executive of Next, are just some of the big names to join Cullum in a letter to the Daily Telegrpah.

The letter reads: "It has been suggested that the deficit reduction programme set out by George Osborne in his emergency Budget should be watered down and spread over more than one parliament. We believe that this would be a mistake.

"Addressing the debt problem in a decisive way will improve business and consumer confidence. Reducing the deficit more slowly would mean additional borrowing every year, higher national debt, and therefore higher spending on interest payments.

"The cost of delay would result in almost £100 billion of additional national debt by the end of this parliament alone. In the end, the result would be deeper cuts, or further tax rises, in order to pay for the extra debt interest."

It ends: "So, each writing in our personal capacity, we would encourage George Osborne and the Government to press ahead with his plans to reduce the deficit.

"In the long run it will deliver a healthier and more stable economy."