This year started with tension between the business community and the Scottish Government thanks to a flurry of measures like the Deposit Return Scheme and the alcohol advertising consultation that paid scant attention to business concerns. It finishes with a Budget that suggests those in the Cabinet arguing for a better relationship with the private sector were resoundingly defeated in the Cabinet’s widely-reported emergency discussions.

As Scottish Chambers of Commerce CEO Liz Cameron said: “We wanted to see a Scottish Government Budget that prioritised investment and business support. Instead, many sectors in the business community will feel neglected and disappointed.” Sir Tom Hunter had warned against increased taxes arguing it was time to focus more on measures to “grow the tax take not the tax rate”.

Read more: We need to take on board lessons to help our universities

The headline measures introducing yet another tax band for those earning between £75,000 and £125,000 makes the challenge of attracting talent into Scotland that much harder just when tackling chronic skills shortages remains amongst the top issues business leaders would like to work with government to address. Adding a further percentage point to the very top rate looks especially unlikely to raise much revenue not least since those with the largest incomes will surely be tempted to increase the contributions they are making to pension schemes. That will be made a great deal easier with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s plan to abolish the lifetime allowance cap from April next year. That cap limited the amount a taxpayer could contribute to their pension without additional tax charges. Now those with the highest incomes will have much more freedom to manage down their tax exposure.

It is also very hard to understand how cutting a further £100m from university and college budgets will help grow our economy. It has already become progressively more difficult for Scottish school pupils – even those with generally excellent grades – to get into the university of their choice. Universities are not unreasonably exploring every route to fill the funding gap left by a steady reduction in the allocation coming from the Scottish Funding Council. International students are the most obvious – and generally successful – example. The places being funded for Scottish pupils will just keep on reducing in line with the funding and that could have a long-term impact on Scotland’s attractiveness for business investment. The Scottish Government has rightly celebrated Scotland’s effectiveness in attracting inward investment with Scotland repeatedly coming in as the second most attractive destination for foreign business investment after London and the South East. The success of Glasgow’s International Financial Services District was almost entirely dependent on the quality and quantity of our graduate talent.

But that in turn depends overwhelmingly on our ability to retain those students when they graduate. The more our universities have to focus on international students to balance the books the more difficult it becomes to hold on to our graduate talent -especially if the UK Government continues to tighten controls on immigration.

Read more:  The five key elements to our action plan

Cutting college funding is an even more alarming move. Colleges have much less room for financial manoeuvres than universities and one wonders how many more colleges will have to reduce staffing as their funding for courses declines. The scope for making worthwhile reforms in the wake of the James Withers report on the Scottish skills landscape can only be damaged by putting more colleges into financial difficulty. Colleges should be the best institutions for responding quickly to current skills shortages. But for that to happen they need the right funding - such as the Flexible Workforce Development Fund - which they can use to meet industry demand. That funding was being dramatically cut even before the Budget announcement. And colleges also have a proud track record of nurturing potential in our most disadvantaged communities. At a time of clear industry demand for skills and with around a quarter of the workforce languishing in economic inactivity why on earth are we planning to spend less on our colleges?

Stuart Patrick is CEO of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce