Reeves said in response to the latest GDP figures she was “not satisfied” because “improving economic growth is at the heart of everything I am seeking to achieve”.
The Chancellor said: “At my Budget, I took the difficult choices to fix the foundations and stabilise our public finances.
“Now we are going to deliver growth through investment and reform to create more jobs and more money in people’s pockets, get the NHS back on its feet, rebuild Britain and secure our borders in a decade of national renewal.”
Reeves set out plans to overhaul pensions in an effort to boost growth in her Mansion House speech on Thursday night. However, The Institute of Directors (IoD) warns the plans will not be enough to offset the blow of tax rises in the Budget.
Anna Leach, the IoD’s chief economist, says: “Reforms that potentially support longer term growth sit uneasily alongside Budget measures that will more rapidly and certainly damage investment, employment and growth.”
Reeves unveiled the biggest tax-raising budget in history last month, which included a £25bn increase in employer National Insurance contributions as well as a capital gains tax raid.
James says: “There are rising risks to the UK economy as businesses are being asked to stomach much of the required fiscal expansion. The economic malaise we have become accustomed to could be here to stay a while longer.”
Business groups have issued stark warnings about how Reeves’s Budget measures will stunt hiring, pay rises and investment in the months ahead.
The Federation of Small Business (FSB) has warned that the increase in employer National Insurance, which includes not just an increase in the rate but a reduction in the threshold, will “inflate the cost of every job in our local communities”.
In a draft letter to the Chancellor, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) this week warned that her measures “create a cumulative burden that will make job losses inevitable and higher prices a certainty”.
Industry group UKHospitality has warned that businesses will be forced to raise prices by as much as 8pc, with business closures and job losses imminent “within a year”.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, says the National Insurance increase is “already having a negative impact on decision-making on investment and jobs, which will no doubt stifle economic growth once again”.
Despite promising to make Britain the fastest-growing economy in the G7, Labour has so far taken the country backwards.