It's great to have this opportunity to speak to you today. Let's be frank about the conditions we're meeting in.
We are at the end of the longest and deepest recession since the war. We face the largest deficit in our peacetime history.
Unemployment is at two and a half million...
...and we should not forget there are also nearly three million people on long-term out-of-work benefits.
One in five young people is out of work.
And last month our economy was overtaken by Italy.
Of one thing there can be no doubt: we cannot go on like this.
This is the last time I will speak to the CBI before Britain goes to the polls.
And I know if the Conservatives win that election, our time in office will be judged on whether we get Britain out of this mess.
If we build lasting and sustainable growth and deal with the deficit, we will be a success.
If we don't, we won't.
So today, I want to be very direct with you - and tackle head on the big questions you have about my Party and this economic crisis.
The first is: what are you going to do about the deficit?
And the second is: how will you help to get the economy growing again?
DEFICIT
Let's start with the most pressing of those questions - what we'll do about the deficit.
Our national debt has doubled in the last five years.
Our annual deficit next year is forecast to be over £170 billion.
This year we are predicted to borrow almost 14 per cent of our GDP.
That's nearly twice as much as when we nearly went bankrupt in the 1970s.
We're borrowing so much that next year, the Government will spend more money on the interest on our debt than on schools.
And the latest monthly figures show that public borrowing is 88 times what it was in the same month last year.
Now there are some who say this doesn't pose a massive risk to our economy.
In fact they go further and argue that dealing with this deficit - with a decisive plan that starts now - would actually damage our recovery.
I think they are profoundly wrong.
Dealing with this deficit is not an alternative to economic growth - the two go hand in hand.
If investors see that there is no will at the top of government to get a grip on our public finances, they are going to seriously doubt our country's creditworthiness.
That's the greatest single risk to sustained economic recovery.
It threatens higher interest rates. Lower investment. Higher unemployment. A recovery stopped in its tracks. Even the risk of tipping back into recession.
The idea that the deficit brings the risk of higher interest rates for businesses and families isn't a theoretical possibility - it is actually happening already.
One of the things that is limiting the supply of affordable credit is that banks need to build up their deposit bases and become less reliant on unstable wholesale funding.
But amazingly the most attractive - and therefore competitive - one year savings product on the market at the moment is actually being provided by the Government, through National Savings and Investments.
So the Government's need to finance its borrowing is already affecting the supply of credit to families and businesses - and its cost.
In other words, government action is already beginning to crowd out the private sector.
This argument - that the deficit risks undermining recovery through higher interest rates - is why the OECD said something incredibly significant last week.
...."by developing and announcing more ambitious fiscal consolidation plans early ... the government would strengthen the recovery."
Let's be clear - that is what we have been saying - tackling the deficit is not an alternative to economic growth - it is part of the solution.
They are not alone. Your Director General Richard Lambert said that the CBI's "strong instincts" are "that the risks of going too soon" on cutting the deficit "are less than the risks of waiting too long".
And in America President Obama has said it is important "to recognise that if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence... in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession."
The OECD. The CBI. President Obama.
The Government used to argue that by calling for urgent action on the deficit, the Conservatives were out on our own.
But today there is a growing international and domestic consensus that urgent action is vital to recovery - a consensus that leaves the Government in isolation.
It's now vital that Alistair Darling uses the opportunity of the Pre-Budget Report to bring this Labour Government back to reality and back into the mainframe of international and domestic opinion with a credible fiscal plan.
They've got to put an end to the politics and electioneering - like last week's Queen's Speech, which contained billions of pounds of unfunded spending commitments...
...and put the country first.
That's what the Conservatives are doing.
Today, we're in the extraordinary position of having a government that is behaving like an irresponsible opposition...
...and an opposition that is behaving like a responsible government.
We have been clear that the deficit needs to be cut and we've shown leadership by being upfront about where spending must come down.
Freezing public sector pay for a year - apart from the million lowest earners -so we help protect jobs ....
... cutting the costs of Whitehall by a third ....
... reducing benefits for better-off families ....
... and bringing forward the planned increase in the state pension age.
But bringing down the deficit can't just be about leadership from the top.
As the best businesses know, if you want real change you cannot simply make that happen from the boardroom - you've got to ...
... empower people to innovate on the frontline ...
... make every single worker an ally in that change ...
... bring in a new culture that prizes thrift over profligacy.
We will do all of these things.
In short ... we're going to bring business sense to the business of government.
GROWTH
The next question you have is, quite rightly: how will you help to get the economy growing?
No one should fall for the straw man argument put up by the government. Listen to them and you would think that the opposition see no role for government at all.
Obviously that is nonsense, but there is a genuine difference of emphasis.
For Labour getting the economy growing is all about government action and big public spending...
...whereas our approach is much more about asking: how we can start the engine of private enterprise?
Because it's not big government that will drive us out of this recession and into a sustainable recovery...
...it's people like you - entrepreneurs, businesspeople, wealth creators.
It's you who will invent the products of the future, sell the exports, attract the investment, grow the industries and create the jobs we need.
So, if we win that election, we will send the message out loud and clear: if you want to set up a business, make an investment, employ new people, then we are on your side.
We will be unashamedly pro-enterprise and pro-wealth creation.
I can announce that within 50 days of taking office, a Conservative Government would introduce an Emergency Growth Budget.
Contained within it will not only be a plan to bring down the deficit...
...but the most comprehensive plan to unleash investment and enterprise in our country.
We will cut the red tape that makes your life a misery and simplify Labour's nightmare tax system.
Any Minister who wants to bring in a new piece of regulation will first have to find an existing one to get rid of.
We'll cut the small companies rate to 20p and the main rate of corporation tax to 25p - paid for by scrapping complex reliefs and allowances - and we want to go further.
And we will abolish all tax on the first ten jobs new businesses create during the first two years of a Conservative government.
So a Conservative Government will be one that knows when to get out of your way.
But businesses don't just need lower tax and less red tape.
They need credit to help with cashflow and stay afloat.
They need skilled workers to employ.
They need the infrastructure - transport, energy, planning - so they can plan for the future with confidence.
These don't just happen by magic.
They require government involvement.
So a Conservative government won't just be one that gets out of your way - it'll be one that will roll its sleeves up and get involved, too.
Let me tell you how.
CREDIT
First, credit.
It's astonishing to think that after three bank bailouts and an injection of £76.2 billion of capital, lending to businesses is still falling.
That's why for over a year, we have been calling for a big and bold National Loan Guarantee Scheme to underwrite lending from banks to British businesses.
Last month George Osborne called for government action to stop retail banks paying out profits in significant cash bonuses this Christmas.
Instead, we have said this cash should be put onto banks' balance sheets explicitly to support new lending.
And we'd also undertake longer-term reform of our banking system to help stop this crisis from happening again.
We will hold a competition review of the banking industry to inform the disposal of taxpayer stakes, and we will encourage new entrants to improve the supply of credit.
And, unlike Labour, we will abolish the tripartite system and give overall responsibility for regulating our banks back to the Bank of the England...
So we'd unlock credit in the immediate term and help ensure credit lines stay open for the long-term too.
SKILLS
Second, skills.
When I travel up and down the country touring factories, offices and companies, there's a big problem I'm always hearing.
There just simply aren't enough skilled workers out there for business to employ.
At our party conference we set out our plans to change that.
It's called Get Britain Working and it's full of detailed, practical and costed commitments.
200,000 new apprenticeships and a new technical school in our twelve largest cities so you have the engineering and technological skills you need.
An overhaul of welfare by involving the private and voluntary sectors and paying them by the results they achieve...
...so a whole new generation of workers - previously consigned to the scrapheap - will be available for you to employ.
And smashing open the supply-side of education so that new providers - anyone with a passion for education - can start up their own schools in the state system...
...driving up standards and meaning the next generation will be ready to take the jobs you want filling.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Third, infrastructure.
We know that capital budgets are often the first things that get cut when money is tight.
And - let's be honest - we know that often Ministers don't care enough about infrastructure projects because they might not be in the same job when the first bit of tarmac is spread or the first cable laid.
Too often politics takes place in a short-time frame, its only horizon the next election.
That's why it's so important to demonstrate leadership.
We've done that by taking long-term decisions on transport and communications.
We're going to revolutionise our transport system by laying down the tracks of a high speed rail link between London and Leeds, taking in Birmingham and Manchester.
And we're going to do everything we can to ensure that the majority of the population have access to fibre-optic and other forms of high speed broadband within five years.
GREEN GROWTH
Credit. Skills. Infrastructure.
And there's one more way government can help business.
We must make sure that the green revolution is a growth revolution, not a brake on business, investment and jobs.
If you look at the different parts of our low carbon plan, you can see what I mean.
An interactive energy grid that helps you invest in new technology and save money...
... decentralised energy with feed in tariffs so all businesses are incentivised and paid for the electricity they generate ...
.... The green deal - allowing businesses to spend over £6,000 per household on energy saving measures - that they recoup from lower energy bills ....
All of these things are about green growth, green investment and green jobs.
The global market for green goods, products and services is already worth hundreds of billions of pounds...
...yet British companies have only a five percent stake.
That's less than France, Germany, Spain, the US and Japan - and this is a global market that has only emerged in the last decade or so.
Tomorrow George Osborne will be setting out how Britain can capitalise on the trillion dollar global market in green technologies.
This is a massive opportunity and I want to help us to take it.
CONCLUSION
The relationship between business organisations and political parties or governments should never be entirely smooth. There should always be discussions ... debates ... even arguments.
But what matters most of all is frankness. And, at a time of difficulty like this, frankness, directness, candour matter more than ever.
I cannot give you the wish list of every piece of infrastructure spending and every tax reduction you would like because - to put it frankly - the Government has run out of money.
Instead, I am offering the agenda that I think you know and I know this country really needs.
Once again living within our means.
Once again stating clearly that it is business, not government, that creates jobs.
Once again remembering that we are in a competitive world where we are not owed a living but have to earn it.
Politics has become infected with a sense of grim inevitability...
...the sense that no one and nothing can make a difference.
But the policies and taxes and regulations that make or break businesses aren't intractable facts of life.
We don't have to have one of the most complicated tax systems in the world - we can change that.
We don't have to have 14 new regulations a day - we can change that.
We don't have to have increasingly uncompetitive rates of corporation tax - we can change that.
We don't have to have a constant lack of technical skills in our workforce - we can change that.
These things can change...
...they must change...
...and with the Conservatives, they will change.