MUCH was made of a recent letter from 100 business leaders to the Daily Telegraph backing the coalition government’s economic strategy over the past five years.

The sentiment that the coalition had got things right for business and a change of government at this time would be crazy was warmly received, particularly by the Prime Minister.

Notably, on the same day, the Centre for Macroeconomics, which groups leading economists from Cambridge University, the London School of Economics, University College London, the Bank of England and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, polled what it calls its 50 experts on whether the “austerity policies of the coalition government have had a positive effect on aggregate economic activity (employment and GDP) in the UK.”

Its result was a decisive No. Two-thirds of the 33 economists who responded disagreed or strongly disagreed that austerity had been good for Britain.

So there are clearly different views that receive differing amounts of weight depending on the political colour of the media outlet concerned.

Labour responded to the Telegraph letter by saying that the business leaders were wrong and that while the economic approach may have benefited them, for the mass of ordinary people there has been little sign of recovery.

The 1.8 million people on zero-hours contracts have become a focus for critics of the government, who claim that millions of jobs may have been created but they are insecure and low paid.

They point to the two in five of new jobs created over recent years that are classified as self-employed.

Figures from HM Revenue & Customs show that of the growing number of people who work for themselves, 35 per cent earn less than £10,000 a year.

Part-time jobs account for half of all jobs created between 2010 and 2012, despite the fact that the people concerned mostly want full-time employment.

The low pay of much of the work created has been reflected in the tax take, which has not gone up in the way that the government hoped.

Put crudely, people in low-paid jobs are often not earning enough to pay much tax.

Yet the business people of the type signing the letter have been doing very nicely, with their profits up resulting in increased share dividends and bonuses.

However they often won’t be spending that money in the marketplace, so fuelling the economy, but instead investing it elsewhere.

It is the lopsided nature of the recovery that enables Labour to argue that the mass of people are not feeling that life is getting any better.

In its most grotesque form the polarisation of wealth that is resulting from this type of economic approach sees over 100 billionaires living in a country where more than 900,000 go to foodbanks.

Business has a role but it must be for the common good. So the letter’s signatories might have more credibility if their companies were beacons of good business practice, paying the living wage to all employees, ensuring they paid full tax in Britain and encouraging trade union membership.

These types of developments would lead to a more equal society in the long term — so when the economy recovers it benefits all, not just the few.

• For more of Paul Donovan’s writing visit www.paulfdonovan.blogspot.com.