The government has “masses still to do” to encourage business to grow, invest and create jobs, the CBI’s president told the Deputy Prime Minister at the CBI’s annual dinner last night.

Although deserving praise for its action on the deficit and focus on the economy, speaking to an audience of around 1,300 senior business leaders, Helen Alexander told Nick Clegg that while the government’s “intentions have been good”, it is “taking too long to get there”.

Alexander said: “There’s much to applaud in the approach your government has taken. I know, though, from talking to members in every region of the country, that there’s masses still to do on implementation.”

She listed a number of initiatives the CBI viewed as top of the list, including energy and the reform of the electricity market; changing the law on industrial action, “because strikes disrupt the public and are bad for growth”; and a call for freedom from “overbearing regulation” for businesses to thrive, we have to be freer from overbearing regulation.

On education and skills, she said that apprenticeships, the focus on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects at school, and more vocational options at 14 are “all good ideas… but now you’ve got to make them happen, every day, on the ground”.

Alexander added: “If we work together on this agenda, we think we can achieve the revitalisation of the UK economy. More confidence, greater investment, more exports, and lots more jobs.”

And turning to the work she has championed at the CBI to encourage more women onto company boards, she said: “It will help when businesses are more representative of the society in which they operate, which is one of the reasons I’m proud of the work the CBI has been doing about women on boards.

“It’s not about quotas or tokenism; it is about bringing in the best talent, it’s about rebuilding trust and it’s about the part business plays in the country at large.”