Chancellor Rachel Reeves ‘won’t apologise’ for reforming UK regulation
Rachel Reeves has said that she “won’t apologise for wanting to reform how regulation works in Britain” after a major economic speech which saw her back a third runway at Heathrow.
The Chancellor unveiled a suite of policies the Treasury said would “kickstart” economic growth, including an “action plan” intended to instil a pro-growth approach to regulation, alongside plans to resume trade talks with India, and the redevelopment of Old Trafford.
Businesses, she said, “are held back by a complex and unpredictable regulatory system, and that is a drag on investment and innovation”.
And a new “final action plan” will be published in March, she pledged, after the former chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was ousted from his role.
Asked by CityAM about concerns over her deregulatary drive and the optics for international investment, Rachel Reeves insisted: “It’s up to the government to set the framework, but I think that businesses probably know what is best for international investment into the UK.
“And what businesses – big and small – say to me all the time: a combination of the huge array of regulations, the number of consultees that they have to consult, the judicial review process, but also the conflicting regulations and rules that you have from different regulators over the same entity or the same investment, just creates confusion.
“There’s a lack of predictability in our regulators which is bad for business and bad for our economy.”
And on the issue of whether intervening in independent regulation was good for Britain, she was resolute: “I won’t apologise for wanting to reform how regulation works in Britain.
“If we’re going to grow the economy, we need to reform the regulators too, they need to be part of this growth mission.”
Ahead of the speech, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “clear out the regulatory weeds” to encourage growth in a Times newspaper opinion piece.
“In the 1980s, the Thatcher government deregulated finance capital. In the New Labour era, globalisation increased the opportunities for trade. This is our equivalent,” he insisted.
During a Q&A with journalists following the speech, Reeves refused to rule out tweaks to her fiscal programme and further tax rises for businesses.
She said: “I am not going to write five years’ worth of budgets in the first six months of office, but that was a once-in-a-generation Budget to fix the inheritance and to draw a line under the economic and fiscal mismanagement of the Conservatives.”
The Chancellor also said she has no plans to publish her tax return, as she joked about the government using HMT revenue “wisely to invest in infrastructure and grow our economy”.