One thing to say about Gordon Brown, given that it is part of a Chancellor’s job to champion the cause of business, is that he has not gone native. Considering how long the Prime Minister-to-be has served as the nation's financial controller, he has retained remarkable detachment.

It is only right that politicians execute their duties independently of the ambitions of business leaders. Political decisions must be made in the name of all citizens, not in favour of special interest groups. But Mr Brown appears far too removed from the realities of business. And he clearly struggles to relax in the company of business people.

Business appreciates the stability that has come with the Brown chancellorship. But Prime Minister Brown cannot expect the business community to continue to let him bask in the glory of the ten-year-old decision to make the Bank of England independent. And not many Chancellors have had the good fortune to be in office during the industrial revolutions of India and China, and the rise of Eastern and Central Europe.

Mr Brown should not need to be reminded of the contribution that business plays sustaining the fabric of society. Very little tax would be raised without commercial activity. At £50 billion a year, corporation tax forms a substantial 9 per cent of the total receipts. Add in business rates, a share of National Insurance and four fifths of the income tax take – since four fifths of the workforce pays tax courtesy of private employment – and business contributes about 40 per cent of the £550 billion collected annually.

It is not only in terms of tax revenue that business is important. Nearly one third of household wealth is tied up in pension savings that, when invested, give capital backing to private enterprises. They also help to fund public infrastructure projectsvia PPP and PFI schemes. Most ideas that enhance living standards come from individual, not state-sponsored, imagination. Would the Dyson vacuum cleaner be with us without entrepreneurship? Or the mobile phone?

Yet business leaders are left wincing at Mr Brown’s speechifying. “We must maintain and enhance our flexibility with less regulation and a competitive tax regime,” he told the CBI last week. How does that platitude sit with a tax code that now runs to 22,500 pages, more than double the 10,000 pages when Mr Brown first walked into Number 11? It sits uncomfortably, and elicits snorts of disbelief from business leaders.

Business needs reassurance that transport links will be upgraded and that the country has enough power as North Sea gas gets scarcer and our ageing nuclear plants are decommissioned. But while Mr Brown expresses good intentions, business is left with doubts about execution and, more importantly, will.

Companies need regulation, but executives are concerned that rule-making too often takes the form of meddling. Having to comply with endless reports and consultations on matters that end up lost in long grass is time-consuming and costly. Perhaps worst of all, however, is the fear that the Chancellor thinks of business as a second-class endeavour, inherently dishonourable. Does he care? Or does he think of business as populated with latterday rack renters and larcenists? Business provides the lifeblood on which society depends. Mr Brown must stop giving business people the impression that he is doing them a favour just by talking to them. At the moment he suffers from corporate cognitive dissonance.