Beneath the noise, today’s Budget – and the forecasts underpinning it – laid bare the ongoing challenge of persistently low growth combined with rising demand for public services. Measures to get more people into work and improving their skills can contribute to jump starting growth, breaking us out of this loop. With almost one million young people not in education, employment or training, it was good to see an announcement of funding for under 25 apprentices in SMEs, alongside a recommitment to a more comprehensive ‘Youth Guarantee’. We look forward to seeing promised details on Growth and Skills Levy changes and the Youth Guarantee offer – and hope to see both reaching as many young people as possible. But there is so much further to go: our estimates show that returning adult skills improvements to 2010 levels would boost the economy by £23 billion. There are measures in train that will make a difference, but we need bigger action to match the rhetoric.