At the budget last week, we made the right choices for Britain, cutting the cost of energy with £150 off bills, protecting the NHS and tackling the scourge of child poverty by removing the two-child limit. We also ensured that the revenue we raised through taxes was done fairly, with everyone contributing but those with the broadest shoulders contributing their fair share. As a result of the choices we made, the budget created a more stable economic environment, driving down inflation and government bond yields. This is vital for protecting our public services, when £1 in every £10 spent by government goes on debt interest.
The budget builds on the action we have already taken to improve the economy: providing £120bn in extra capital investment in such things as roads, rail and energy; enacting the biggest planning reforms in a generation to back builders, not blockers; supporting the expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick; and signing trade deals with the EU, India and the US. Taken together, these have allowed us to exceed our growth forecasts.
As I set out at the Labour party conference, the government’s purpose is nothing less than the renewal of our economy, our communities and our state. By doing that, we will end decline and restore faith in our country. We will take on those on the left and right who only offer grievance and whose approach would lead to further decline. Let me be clear, turning on the borrowing taps or returning us to austerity – that is the politics of decline and I will not accept it.
In a speech on Monday, I will place the budget in the context of the broader economic renewal on which the government will be judged at the end of this parliament. If we are to achieve the national renewal we seek, we must do more to encourage growth, to tackle inactivity among young people and to pursue closer international cooperation with our trading partners.
Our growth mission will include a renewed focus on sweeping away unnecessary regulation. Often it has been those on the left who have favoured regulation, but there is nothing progressive in regulations which serve only to increase the cost of living for the poorest, to slow down economic growth unnecessarily, or prevent a Labour government achieving its aims. That is why I am asking the business secretary, Peter Kyle, to tackle the type of pointless gold-plating and unnecessary red tape that add to costs and get in the way of our industrial strategy.
Economic renewal also demands that we must continue to reform the welfare state. We inherited a failing system that left children too poor to eat and which wrote off young people as too sick to work. We must not accept either part of that failing Tory system. That is why we will do more to help young people achieve their potential. Because if you are ignored in your early career, if you are not given the support you need to overcome your mental health issues, or if you are simply written off because you are neurodivergent or disabled, then it can trap you in a cycle of worklessness and dependency for decades.
This costs the country money, is bad for our productivity, but much more importantly, it takes away opportunity and ignores potential. Any Labour government worthy of the name cannot ignore that. That is why we have commissioned former health secretary Alan Milburn to make practical recommendations to help young people with health conditions access work, training or education – ensuring they are supported to thrive and not sidelined.
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Finally, we have to do more to help our businesses trade internationally. There is no credible economic vision for Britain that does not position us as an open, trading economy. We must confront the reality that the botched Brexit deal significantly hurt our economy. You do not need to have a PhD in economics to know that erecting unnecessary trade barriers with your biggest trading partner will hurt growth and raise the cost of living.
So one element of our economic renewal will be continuing to move towards a closer trading relationship with the EU. If we can get cheaper food, boost growth and create jobs by having a closer relationship with the EU, we should.
A budget based on fair choices for Britain must be backed up with a determination to achieve the economic renewal that the country needs. By delivering a big, bold long-term plan, not a set of quick fixes, we will renew Britain. We must become again a serious people, with a serious government, capable together of doing difficult things to regain control of our future.
By having a clear mission to renew our economy, our communities and our state, we will deliver the change we promised – and then be judged on it at the next election.
