Chancellor John Healey used a speech in Coventry this morning to set out plans for driving growth “in more places” across the UK, while refusing to be drawn into discussing tax rises ahead of the Budget.
Speaking at the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Healey said he wanted to make “Great Britain, growth Britain again,” arguing that fiscal credibility and growth were inseparable. He restated the government's commitment to meeting its fiscal rules at the Budget, saying “there's nothing progressive” about the government spending £1 in every £10 on debt interest, and blamed Liz Truss's 2022 mini-Budget for the “trust penalty” Britain has paid since.
On regional growth, Healey confirmed £150m from the British Business Bank for scale-ups in the north of England, targeting investments of £5m-£15m in university spinouts and ambitious businesses from Liverpool and Manchester to Leeds, Sheffield, Hull and Newcastle. He also named South Yorkshire, Liverpool, the North East and the Cardiff Capital Region as new strategic partners of the National Wealth Fund.
The chancellor said he would change the Treasury's green book rules, which govern how government projects are appraised, cutting the discount rate from 3.5% to 3%. This, he said, would “skew investment towards projects with more long-term potential.” He pledged to cut the burden of business regulation by 25% by the end of the parliament and extend judicial review reforms from energy to all major infrastructure projects.
Healey said a “roadmap to fiscal devolution” would be set out at the Budget, including greater business rates retention for councils and a shift from central grants to a share of local income tax for mayoral authorities from 2028.
Reacting to the speech, Matt Benchener, chief executive of Hargreaves Lansdown, said the chancellor's “ambition for growth” was “absolutely right,” but that reforms already made would “take time to work through the system.”
He added that fiscal stability was now what mattered most, saying it would give “investors and savers the confidence to plan with certainty for the long term,” and that this was “how wealth creation can be delivered in every postcode.”