The chancellor should axe the annual spring budget and autumn statement in order to provide greater certainty for Britain’s manufacturing industry, according to the main trade body representing the sector.

The head of Make UK is calling for the twice-yearly fiscal events to be dropped as part of a package of calls for the government to overhaul its policies on taxing and spending.

Its chief executive, Stephen Phipson, said on Tuesday that Jeremy Hunt’s budget next week should be the last fiscal statement by a chancellor, and that future governments instead should set out their tax and spend policies once, at the start of parliament.

Speaking at the Make UK National Manufacturing Conference in London, Phipson said: “If I were to ask [Hunt] to do one thing next week in the budget, it is to announce that, from now on, there will be no annual fiscal statements, let alone two a year.

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He said: “We have had six plans for growth in little over a decade, while the department responsible for industry has been reorganised five times in the same period. Any of you running businesses this way would have gone bankrupt.”

like asking investors to set out an investment strategy, stick to it for 20+ years, stop logging in and looking regularly, and avoid tinkering and meddling. Good luck with that.