Brian Wheeler
Political journalist
Rachel Reeves: Low growth is not our destiny
Chancellor Rachel Reeves supported a third track at London Heathrow Airport as part of a new plan to grow British Kingdom’s British economy.
She said that Heathrow’s expansion, which has been delayed for decades compared to environmental concerns, “would” make “Britain the best place connected to the world to do business”.
In a large -scale speech to business leaders, she also supported extensions at Luton and Gatwick airports, as well as a “growth corridor” between Oxford and Cambridge, which, according to her, could be “Silicon European Valley “.
Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch said the plans had mainly stolen from his party, but said that new labor employment laws would destroy any growth prospect.
In his speech, Reeves has sought to inject a certain optimism and confidence in the economy, which has taken a battery in recent months, because growth has been ceiling.
She retaliated to conservative affirmations that her “destroying” budget was to be blamed, insisting that she had “an alternative” that to increase the national insurance of employers to restore stability.
She did not explicitly exclude tax increases in the spring – but insisted that the government had “started turning things” and was determined to go “faster” to increase growth.
She described the United Kingdom as a country of “enormous potential” which had been “retained” for “too long” because politicians did not have the “courage” to challenge the status quo.
“Low growth is not our destiny, but growth will not occur without fighting, without a government ready to make the right decisions now to change the future of our country for the best,” she Added.
The government has made growth its absolute priority because so many of its other plans – to improve public services and the standard of living, as well as its chances of winning the next elections – depend on it.
Reeves said that a third track in Heathrow was “really necessary” to increase trade through the United Kingdom and that it “invited the proposals to be presented” in summer, with money that should come of the private sector.
The government insists that aviation progress meant that a third track would not break its rules for reducing carbon – but it is always fiercely resisted by environmental activists and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan .
Reeves says that she wants to continue the project, although it is unlikely to be completed until the mid -2030s, claiming that it was an example of the government making daring decisions in the public interest.
Other projects announced today include a major redevelopment of Old Trafford, the area around a new stadium for Manchester United and a plan to bring the Doncaster / Sheffield airport using and stimulating industry at the airport of East Midlands.
The government has also promised better rail and road links to reduce the journey time between Oxford and Cambridge, as well as new tanks to cope with water shortages in the region and investment in high -tech industries.
Reeves said that the new “growth corridor” would increase up to 78 billion pounds to the British economy by 2035.
Many projects are unlikely to be completed before the next general elections.
Reeves recognized that today’s announcements were the start of a long process.
But the Labor Party hopes that they will send a signal to business and consumers that the government is serious about growth – and that voters will notice that the work of signs is underway.
The new powers in the planning and infrastructure bill would reduce years of length periods that took to ensure that major infrastructure projects take off, according to Reeves.
She said it was “really shocked” how slow the planning system – the addition of developers should be able to stop worrying to “bats and newts”.
And Sir Keir Starmer promised to get rid of an “filled with administrative formalities” which, according to him, dissupered foreign investments, in an article in Times.
The government is also relaxing restrictions on major pension funds to encourage them to invest more in British companies.
The unions welcomed the announcement of Heathrow and the director general of Thomas Woldbye airport described the chancellor’s speech as “the daring and responsible vision that the United Kingdom needs to prosper in the 21st century”.
But Sir Sadiq Khan said: “I’m just not convinced that you can have hundreds of thousands of additional flights to Heathrow each year without an extremely damaging impact on our environment.”
PMQS: Badenoch accuses the government of “destroying” growth
The Government will also examine the so -called Green Paper Rules – Directors issued by the Treasury on how to assess policies, programs and projects – which, according to him, have biased infrastructure expenses in areas in areas rapid growth, mainly in the South.
To the Prime Minister’s issues, Kemi Badenoch referred to the government’s rights bill, which aims to strengthen workers’ rights.
The Conservatives said that he “hammered” companies and would destroy growth, and urged the PM to remove documents that will extend the right to statutory salary of illness.
“The government itself, its government itself, believes that these changes will increase commercial costs by 600 million pounds sterling to 1 billion pounds sterling in sickness,” she told Sir Keir.
“This will mean higher prices, less jobs, less growth.”
The Prime Minister insisted that the new laws would be “good for workers and good for growth” and accused the curators of being “a coalition of blockers”.
Lib Dem chief Sir Ed Davey called Sir Keir to abandon his objections to a UK customs union and other “harmful trade barriers” during a next trip to Brussels.
The spokesperson for the SNP economy, Dave Doogan, said that the chancellor’s speech “offered nothing for Scotland”, adding: “Instead of repairing British Brexit, Rachel Reeves took the ‘British economy in the wrong direction. “
