Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to ‘clear out the regulatory weeds’ to encourage growth, as his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will say that Britain has been ‘held back’ and ‘accepted stagnation’ in a major economic speech
Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to “clear out the regulatory weeds” to stimulate growth, while Rachel Reeves is set to argue that Britain has been “held back” and has “accepted stagnation” in a significant economic speech.
The Prime Minister, referencing his New Labour predecessors and Margaret Thatcher, stated that regulation has hindered Britain’s progress for “too long regulation has stopped Britain building its future”.
This comes as the Chancellor prepares to announce policies on Wednesday aimed at promoting economic growth, and to praise the Oxford-Cambridge region for its potential to become “the potential to be Europe’s Silicon Valley”. In an article for The Times, Sir Keir criticised the “morass of regulation that effectively bans billions of pounds” of investment, describing “thickets of red tape” that have “spread through the British economy like Japanese knotweed”.
He declared that ministers will “kick down the barriers to building, clear out the regulatory weeds and allow a new era of British growth to bloom”. The Prime Minister later added: “A change in the economic weather can only ever come from a supply-side expansion of the nation’s productive power.
“In the 1980s, the Thatcher government deregulated finance capital. In the New Labour era, globalisation increased the opportunities for trade. This is our equivalent.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to outline ambitious plans for the Oxford and Cambridge region during her speech in Oxfordshire, slated for Wednesday. She’s poised to back the expansion of Heathrow Airport and reaffirm support for Old Trafford’s redevelopment.
Ms Reeves will likely paint Britain as a land brimming with untapped promise, while stating that it has long been hindered by low expectations and stagnation: “For too long, we have accepted low expectations, accepted stagnation and accepted the risk of decline. We can do so much better,” she’s anticipated to declare. “Low growth is not our destiny. But growth will not come without a fight. Without a Government that is on the side of working people. Willing to take the right decisions now to change our country’s course for the better.”
This comes as Reeves, alongside Sir Keir Starmer, hinted to industry bigwigs that government officials have been tasked with sidelining any policies that could obstruct their economic expansion goals. In her address, Reeves is set to unveil measures including new reservoirs and a Tempsford train station, aimed at enhancing connections within the area around the illustrious universities.
Ms Reeves is also expected to discuss funding for East-West Rail and a new railway station in Tempsford as part of what she calls the “Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor” initiative.
Ms Reeves is set to declare that the cities are “two of the least affordable in the UK” and the current transport options mean that travelling between them “by train takes two-and-a-half hours”, while “there is no way to commute directly from towns like Bedford and Milton Keynes to Cambridge by rail”. She will also highlight the economic potential of Oxford and Cambridge, stating: “Just 66 miles apart, these cities are home to two of the best universities in the world, two of the most intensive innovation clusters in the world and the area is a hub for globally renowned science and technology firms in life sciences, manufacturing and AI.”
She will further add: “It has the potential to be Europe’s Silicon Valley. The home of British innovation.” The Chancellor will later comment: “In other words, the demand is there but there are far too many supply side constraints on economic growth in the region.”
Sir Keir Starmer, during a meeting with business leaders in the City of London, stated that he was “hard-wiring growth into all the decisions of the Cabinet” and that “what Rachel and I have done is to make it clear to each of our Cabinet colleagues that in each of their briefs, growth is the number one mission”.
Ministers will now be expected to present the growth credentials of new policies to gain approval from their Cabinet colleagues, marking a change from the usual system to achieve “collective agreement” on significant changes.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has accused Sir Keir and Ms Reeves, along with their financial plans, of being the “biggest barriers to growth”. Prior to his Wednesday speech, Mr Stride stated: “Hastily cobbled together announcements of growth in the 2030s will do nothing to help the businesses cutting jobs right now because of Labour’s punishing jobs tax, the companies being crushed under their barrage of new regulations, or the farmers facing bankruptcy over the cruel family farm tax.”