Budget 2012: George Osborne's support for business is purely symbolic If they do, however, it won't be this year - at least according to the forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). In November, the fiscal watchdog expected business investment to grow by 7.6pc in 2012. Now, companies are expected to manage just 0.7pc - despite sitting on a cash pile estimated by some to be £750bn, and squirrelling away £70bn a year. "Not as much of that cash may be available to invest," OBR chairman Robert Chote explained, as he tweaked the GDP growth forecast for this year up from 0.7pc to 0.8pc but left the general economic outlook largely unchanged. Having unashamedly backed business in his past two Budgets, the Chancellor shifted uneasily and switched his focus back to households. For some, like KPMG chief economist Andrew Smith, the change was evidence that expansionary fiscal contraction "isn't working." Even the Chancellor seemed to agree that a little stimulus might go a long way, rebalancing the austerity measures to give the economy a £2bn fillip this year and £1bn next, and to claw the £3bn back later. Working households, the middle-income ones who spend their money on real goods down the shops rather than on investment portfolios in Swiss cantons, were the beneficiaries. Raising the tax-free personal allowance to £9,205 next year will give them about £3.5bn, even after the higher rate of income tax falls from £42,475 to £41,450. Staggering the loss of child benefit will save families another £700m. Every worker earning less than £100,000 will be better off, the Treasury said. It was an attempt to lift domestic demand. He should be congratulated - that's his hope for a fiscal boost," Standard Chartered chief economist Gerard Lyons said. The hope being that, if businesses can see spending picking up, they may finally have the "confidence" to invest. The other business measures "amounted to small scale tinkering," the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) said. Planning reforms that will see the rulebook cut from 1,000 to 50 pages - "the biggest reduction in red tape ever undertaken," Mr Osborne claimed - were welcomed. But other measures, from £100m for university research facilities to tax breaks for Wallace & Gromit, were "timid ... and irksome," the CPS director Tim Knox said. There was just a hint of the Chancellor's desire for broader reform. He seemed to point to a simpler, flatter tax system in the suggestion that corporation tax is "within sight of a 20pc rate of business tax that would align basic rate income tax, the small companies rate and the corporation tax rate." A promise to integrate income tax and national insurance and the change in the balance of personal taxes also hinted at the "far-reaching tax reform" he promised. Earnings will be taxed less, and wealth more. By introducing a 7pc rate of stamp duty on £2m homes, a 15pc rate on inter-company property transfers, and capping unlimited tax reliefs, those on more than £150,000 will pay on average £1,300 more tax despite the cut in the top rate. The crackdown "is consistent with moving from taxing earned to unearned income," Mr Lyons said. A move in the right direction. Unfortunately for pensioners, many have been caught by the same reformist zeal. They will lose £1.25bn annually by 2016 by having their generous £10,500 tax-free personal allowance frozen until it falls into line with those drawing a salary. Hints were all Mr Osborne could afford. The OBR may now expect the national debt to peak at £1.48 trillion in 2016, £35bn less than its November outlook, and borrowing may be on course to come in £11bn lower than forecast over six years, but the Chancellor will only just meet his "fiscal mandate." Even if he had wanted to splash out, his hands were tied. With business failing to deliver the growth the country desperately needs, ultimately he could do little more than hold the line.