CLIVE Parritt, deputy president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), has warned that financial austerity is needed to reduce the country’s deficit.

Addressing the annual dinner of the Teesside Society of Chartered Accountants, he said effective financial management was needed in Government and the public sector generally.

Mr Parritt said the Comprehensive Spending Review provided an opportunity to build a new arrangement for financial management.

“Unless we seize that opportunity, we will condemn ourselves to future turmoil in our public finances,” he said.

“One of the other priorities of the coalition government needs to be improving the UK’s competitiveness and making it a better place to do business.”

ICAEW’s recent enterprise survey suggested larger companies felt that regulation and taxation in the UK had improved in the last year – but smaller businesses remained disillusioned with the level of bureaucracy.

Mr Parritt said: “They continue to suffer from excessive and heavyhanded regulation and are penalised with NIC for employing people, added to that are concerns about the imminent demise of the RDAs.”

The evening at the Thistle Hotel, Middlesbrough, raised more than £2,500 for the North of England Children’s Cancer Research Fund (NECCR) through a raffle to experience a new XJ Jaguar from Stratstone Jaguar for a weekend. It was won by Gary Bolton, of Evolution. The after dinner speaker was Middlesbrough born comedian Kevin Connelly