LONDON (AP) — Britain’s new Labour government will make stimulating economic growth its mission while limiting bureaucracy to make it easier to invest in the country, the Treasury chief said Monday.
In her first major speech, Rachel Reeves said there was no time to waste to reverse what she called “14 years of chaos and economic instability” under Conservative governments.
“Where governments have been unwilling to take the difficult decisions to deliver growth – or have waited too long to act – I will deliver,” she told business leaders and reporters.
Reeves, Britain’s first female Treasury chief and a former Bank of England economist, said sustained economic growth was the only way to improve living standards for all and to rebuild the country’s stretched and underfunded public services.
She said she is taking immediate action to deregulate planning rules to make it easier to build infrastructure, housing and energy projects.
“To investors and businesses who spent 14 years doubting whether Britain is a safe place to invest, then let me tell you, after 14 years, Britain has a stable government,” she said. “In an uncertain world, Britain is a place to do business.”
Reeves said she will assess the “spending inheritance” left by the Conservatives over the coming months before making the government’s first budget statement later this year.
Reeves has pledged to set a mandatory target of 1.5 million new homes in England over the next five years, and reverse a ban on onshore wind energy developments.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who became leader on Friday after a landslide majority in last week’s election, has pledged to “rebuild the infrastructure of opportunity” for voters frustrated with a stagnant economy, rising poverty and dysfunctional public healthcare.
