Rachel Reeves has pledged to “fix the foundations” of the British economy, revealing an immediate plan to boost growth by unblocking infrastructure and private investment in her first speech as chancellor.
In an address to business leaders, she will say that economic growth for all parts of the country is “a national mission” and that she will take tough decisions to deliver on the new government’s mandate.
Cabinet ministers issued a series of announcements on Sunday night as Labour prepared for its first week in government, including:
-
A shake-up of planning regulation, including on green belt land, as well as new housing targets.
-
Talks to end the junior doctors’ strikes. Wes Streeting will meet the British Medical Association union on Tuesday.
-
A recruitment advert for a new border security commander, which will go live on Monday.
-
A reopening and expansion of the government’s teacher recruitment campaign.
-
A pledge to Ukraine that military aid pledged by Rishi Sunak in April is “guaranteed”, alongside a commitment to boost UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP. The promises came from the new defence secretary, John Healey, who travelled to meet Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Keir Starmer is spending 24 hours travelling to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales before returning to England, to underline his commitment to all corners of the UK. He has become the first prime minister since Tony Blair to win in all parts of Britain.
The prime minister said he would soon set up a council of nations and regions – one of the main recommendations from a constitutional reform commission chaired by Gordon Brown.
Speaking in Edinburgh on Sunday, Starmer reiterated that he wanted to forge new cooperation with elected politicians from across different political parties, from the Conservative Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen, to the Scottish National party first minister, John Swinney.
“I’m totally committed to the principle that those with skin in the game know best, what works for their communities, and that what you shouldn’t do is have individuals in Westminster and Whitehall making decisions affecting communities when they’ve got their own representatives,” he said. “I think the best interest of every community is held by those who are elected into office.”
Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, will be at Starmer’s side for a meeting with English metro mayors on Tuesday, where they will discuss Labour’s plan to “power up” Britain through more devolution and local growth plans.
The Guardian understands that the levelling up slogan will be dropped from her Whitehall department’s name, amid the belief that the previous government was never clear on what it meant to deliver.
“We agree with the principle of levelling up, but it was a gimmicky branding exercise,” an insider said. “We’ll be taking the Ronseal approach. It will do what it says on the tin.” The department is expected to regain its previous name: housing, communities and local government.
Rayner is also expected to establish a ministerial office in Manchester, where there are existing government buildings, both to symbolise how her focus will be beyond London, but also so that she can spend some days nearer her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency.
Reeves, who spent the weekend in the Treasury, will say there is “no time to waste”, arguing that had the UK economy grown at the average rate of OECD countries since 2010, it would have been £140bn larger.
The government is expected to confirm changes to planning regulations this week, including reinstating mandatory targets for local authorities to build more homes and making it easier to build on the green belt.
It will announce a review of the UK’s National Planning Policy Framework, with the aim of simplifying the construction of homes, laboratories, digital infrastructure and gigafactories, and launch a consultation to decide where to build a series of new towns.
Reeves is also planning to strengthen the existing growth unit within the Treasury. “It’s growth, growth, growth,” a source said.
In her speech, Reeves will say: “Last week, the British people voted for change. And over the past 72 hours I have begun the work necessary to deliver on that mandate. Our manifesto was clear: sustained economic growth is the only route to improving the prosperity of our country and the living standards of working people.
“Where governments have been unwilling to take the difficult decisions to deliver growth – or have waited too long to act – I will deliver. It is now a national mission. There is no time to waste.
“This morning I want to outline the first steps this new government has taken to fix the foundations of our economy, so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of our country better off.”
She will tell her audience of businesses leaders from sectors including financial services and green industries: “It falls to this new government to fix the foundations.”
after newsletter promotion
On Sunday morning, Reeves came under pressure from the Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, to change its fiscal rules so that it can borrow more to invest in infrastructure and public services, saying people “haven’t got time to wait for growth”.
Reeves has said the government will borrow only to invest within its fiscal rules, and that overall public debt should fall year on year as a share of GDP by the fifth year of official forecasts.
Cabinet ministers are expected to launch new measures and appointments on Monday, and MPs will begin swearing in on Tuesday.
On Monday, the home secretary will launch the recruitment advert for a new border security commander, expected to be drawn from a pool of former police chiefs or people with military or intelligence backgrounds.
Yvette Cooper has assembled a core team in the Home Office to work on the remit and structure of the new border command and work is also being done on a bill to grant new counter-terror powers to tackle smuggling gangs.
“We can’t carry on like this. We need to tackle the root of the problem, going after these dangerous criminals and bringing them to justice,” Cooper said.
“The border security command will be a major step change in UK enforcement efforts to tackle organised immigration crime, drawing on substantial resources to work across Europe and beyond to disrupt trafficking networks and to coordinate with prosecutors in Europe to deliver justice.”
But the government ruled out the introduction of digital ID cards, which had been touted by the former prime minister Tony Blair as a way to help control immigration.
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told Times Radio that ID cards were not an option. “We can rule that out; that’s not something that’s part of our plans,” he said. Blair had said that he believed that was the “best solution … so that we know precisely who has a right to be here”.
Streeting said he would immediately set about ending the junior doctors’ strikes with his first face-to-face meeting with the BMA on Tuesday. He will visit a GP practice with the NHS chief, Amanda Pritchard, on Monday, and meet the British Dental Association to discuss reform of the dental contract.
“When I said the NHS was broken, I was being honest with the public about the scale of the challenge. It will take time to fix it, so there’s no time to waste,” Streeting said.
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, wrote to all education workforces on Sunday in an effort to boost morale and is planning to meet unions in the next few days as work begins to reset the relationship between ministers and the teaching profession. Phillipson also announced that the Department for Education’s flagship teacher recruitment campaign, Every Lesson Shapes a Life, will reopen and be expanded as part of plans to recruit 6,500 more teachers.