This was George's second appearance at Conference. He opened by saying that we were less than 50 days from the most important general election for a generation.

He felt the current set of policies will lead to economic decline and that we have been too reliant on debt. This has proved ever more difficult for Britain's small businessses. In England and Wales 50 businesses are going bust. Scotland has been hit hard too, in particular manufacturing exports. Unemployment rose by 16 per cent this quarter in Scotland.

Osborne argued that the British economic recovery has not been as strong compared with our competitors.  A Conservative Government would, he argued, take action on the national debt. Also, overseas businesseses will not be able to compete if our credit rating is so poor. The Government plan is not credible - Osborne claimed that taxes could rise to hit small businesses and that would not be the way to restore confidence in Britain.

The view of business, according to Osborne, is in dealing with our debts. If David Cameron is elected he will come to Holyrood once a year, the financial committtee in Scotland would be fully briefed on the contents of the Budget and will sit with Alex Salmond about the consequences of the budget on Scotland.

The Conservatives will heed advice of business - backing enterprise generated mostly within small businesses. He has set the next Conservative Government with an ambition to make the UK the best place to start and run a small business. Since 1997 more than 14 new regulations have been introduced every year, and, 7 hours every week has been spent filling in forms. Conservatives will instill regulatory budgets - departments will produce 5 per cent cuts every year. Kenneth Clarke will chair the committee on cutting business regulation. The aim is to get rid of the red tape on starting a business - introduing a one click process, also banning social housing tenancy agreements which prevents people starting businesses from home.

On procurement, £100 billion a year is spent by Government, 99 per cent of businesses (small) win just 16 per cent of contracts, so the Conservatives will open up the system to small businesses with the ambition for a quarter of contracts to go to SMEs. This will mean £15 billion going to SMEs. Every Government contract above £25,000 will be published - making it more open and transparent for small businesses.
 
On Broadband, the Conservatives will extend the BBC license fee to invest in 100MB broadband - opening up more opportunities to small businesses - potentially creating 600,000 new jobs.

The complexity of the tax system is a problem - we have the longest tax code in the world. The next Conservative Government will cut the small business corporation tax rate to 20 per cent. Osbourne will try to scrap the 1 per cent national insurance level but cannot make this promise yet.

The Conservatives will make business rate relief automatic and will reverse the abolition of the Furnished Holiday Letting rules - it is what the FSB is campaigning for.

Finally, any new business started in the two years after the election will not pay National Insurance on the first 10 people that they employ.

Questions from the floor were asked about the NI holiday, the difficulty of pre qualification questionnaires for procurement contracts and fuel tax:

Osborne answered that pension rights of NI contributions would be protected and that the focus would be on new businesses and not existing businesses.

On the difficulty of Pre Qualification Questionnaires - Osborne wanted to make it dramatically simpler through a single place online, removing rules that make it difficult. Contracts of £25,000 cover a significant percentage of Government spending and it will provide greater transparency of where the money is going.

Finally on the fuel tax issue, he could not make promises on tax cuts but told Conference there will have to be some tax under a Conservative Government.  The Conservative idea on fuel duty, that will be consulted on if and when in Government, is for a fair fuel stabiliser - when the oil price goes up the fuel duty goes down and vice versa - it stays constant and a stable price is introduced to help businesses plan.