Chancellor outlined Labour’s plans for growth – here’s ours
Date published:
The Chamber’s latest column for The Journal by Marianne O’Sullivan, policy manager.
The Chamber recently attended the Labour Party conference allowing us to talk directly to decision-makers about our members’ priorities for skills, investment and the conditions for growth.
At the conference we heard from the Chancellor on plans for a new industrial strategy to deliver long term growth.
The speech highlighted a strategy for manufacturing and services sectors as well as breaking down barriers to regional growth, giving powers to mayors and meeting our net zero targets by 2030.
This is crucial for our region, we have the opportunity to lead the UK’s transition to net zero with our growing energy sector, and further strengthen our manufacturing sector.
In our Budget submission we highlighted the need for a cross-sector infrastructure strategy by 2025 as well as addressing grid connectivity and capacity. This would drive the green economy and feed into a clear industrial strategy for the UK.
We also support further devolved powers to the region’s mayors to deliver on growth in the region. High levels of economic inactivity, ill health, deprivation and poor access to transport act as barriers to growth. We look forward to working with both the government and the combined authorities to tackle these barriers.
It was also positive to see a focus on business rates from the Chancellor, which was highlighted in our Budget submission. We will wait for further details and consult with members on any changes to business rates.
Importantly the government also announced that free school breakfast clubs will start to roll out from April, with some schools starting earlier, as well as a child poverty taskforce.
Increasing access to childcare and a strong focus on child poverty is vital, we urgently need to reduce child poverty levels in the North East.
On trade the government said they will look to forge a closer relationship with our neighbours in the European Union, while pursuing trade deals to open up new markets too. Our members would like to see a ‘roadmap’ for free trade agreements to enable smoother trade with the EU and beyond.
The Chancellor’s speech highlighted the struggle for entrepreneurs to access finance and the need to encourage investment in the UK. We are now looking to the Budget on 31 October for more detail on some of the issues highlighted at party conference.
We will continue to engage with our members and ensure that the voice of the North East is heard.