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The outgoing head of the CBI today strongly criticised the government's lack of strategy for economic growth and warned that ministers would fail to reduce Britain's budget deficit without measures to boost demand. Sir Richard Lambert used his last big speech as director general of the employers' organisation to accuse the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition of taking policy initiatives for political reasons "apparently careless of the damage that they might do to business and to job creation". Speaking on the eve of the release of official growth figures expected to show a slowdown in the pace of economic expansion in the final three months of 2010, Lambert backed plans to cut the deficit but said they had to be accompanied by increased output and employment, which would increase tax receipts. "The sooner we can get output back up to the levels that were expected before the recession, the quicker government revenues will rise to narrow the fiscal gap. "It's not enough just to slam on the spending brakes. Measures that cut spending but killed demand would actually make matters worse." Lambert said the government had been single-minded, even ruthless, in the pursuit of spending cuts but had not been "nearly so consistent" when it came to policies that supported growth. "It's failed so far to articulate in big picture terms its vision of what the UK economy might become under its stewardship."