Reeves Unleashed: Rachel Reeves delivered her big growth speech at Siemens Healthineers, in Eynsham, Oxford on Wednesday © PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Growth, Growth, Growth was the message from the Chancellor this week in a major speech where she sought to set out just how the Government is going to achieve its “number one mission” of economic (yep, you guessed it) growth. Mentioning ‘growth’ 51 times in a 43-minute speech, Rachel Reeves detailed the three key elements of the Government’s strategy: (1) stability – in politics, public finances and the economy; (2) reform – making it easier for businesses to trade, raise finance and build; and (3) investment, the “lifeblood of economic growth”. A series of announcements were made to support these three elements… a handy little summary of which you can find below:
Trade – Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds will be visiting India shortly to restart talks on a free trade agreement and bilateral investment…. new US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will be coming to the UK… and the relationship with the EU will be reset.
Regulation and Planning – An action plan will be published in March to make regulation work better for the economy… the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will be published in the spring… environmental requirements on developers when they pay into a nature restoration fund will be reduced… a new approach with a default ‘yes’ for planning decisions on land around rail stations will be introduced.
National Wealth Fund – £65m will be invested in Connected Kerb to expand their electric vehicle charging network… and a £28m equity investment will be made in Cornish Metals.
Net Zero – A “refreshed” Carbon Budget Delivery Plan will be published later this year… and new Marine Protected Areas will be designated to remove barriers to help deliver 16GW of offshore wind.
Infrastructure – A 10-year Infrastructure Strategy will be published in the spring… the Green Book will be reviewed to ensure it provides objective and transparent advice on public investment around the country, including outside London and the South East… support for the redevelopment of the Old Trafford area of Manchester, including a redeveloped football stadium… the Lower Thames Crossing will go ahead… backing for the Wrexham and Flintshire Investment Zone… and £7.9bn in investment to build nine new water reservoirs.
Aviation – Support for a third runway at Heathrow, inviting proposals to come forward by the summer… two live decisions on Luton and Gatwick airports will be made by the Transport Secretary soon… support for the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport… a partnership between Prologis and Manchester Airport Group for a new advanced manufacturing and logistics park at East Midlands Airport… £63m for the Advanced Fuels Fund… and confirmation of details of a Revenue Certainty Mechanism for Sustainable Aviation Fuels.
Oxford-Cambridge Arc – Funding for transport links to make the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor a “success”, including East West-Rail and road upgrades… a new mainline station at Tempsford… prioritising a new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital… plans for a new Fens Reservoir… the Environment Agency has removed objections to a new 4,500 home development… Cambridge University has plans for a new innovation hub… the creation of a new AI Growth Zone in Culham… and the appointment of Lord Vallance as the Ox-Cam Growth Corridor Champion.
5 – years since the UK’s official departure from the EU
£78 billion – amount the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor is expected to add to the economy by 2035
32 – number of UK Trade Envoys appointed this week as part of a new ‘global growth team’
19% – increase in fraud in the year ending September 2024, equating to around 3.9 million incidents
£6.82 – average price of a meal with an alcoholic drink at Wetherspoons after its recent price hike
7.4 million – number of people that tuned in for the finale of The Traitors last Friday
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill was introduced to Parliament as the Government seeks to take a counter-terror style approach to illegal immigration. The Bill makes endangering lives at sea a new criminal offence, includes stronger powers to seize and search mobile phones to investigate organised immigration crime, and introduces new offences against gangs conspiring to plan crossings, selling or handling small boat parts for use in the Channel, or supplying forged ID documents.
The Prime Minister held a call with President Trump, hours after Trump praised him for having done a “very good job thus far" and saying the pair had a "very good relationship". The Foreign Secretary subsequently talked to Trump’s new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. However, Elon Musk’s newfound dislike of the British Government still has the potential to upset the apple cart.
The world marked Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz, with 50 of the last few living survivors returning to the site of the concentration camp to tell their stories. King Charles attended the commemoration in Poland alongside world leaders including French President Macron, German Chancellor Scholz and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. Keir Starmer reiterated that it was “a duty for all of us to make “never again” finally mean what it says: Never again.”
The Government launched a ‘national conversation’ on land use, with a consultation on the Land Use Framework seeking to balance the Government’s objectives for ‘England’s finite land, including growing food, building 1.5 million homes this parliament, and restoring nature’, as well as energy infrastructure such as solar farms. It follows complaints by rural MPs who oppose the use of farmland for development.
Defence spending may not rise until the early 2030s, despite the Government’s manifesto promise to increase spending to 2.5%. A source said increasing spending ahead of 2030 would put undue pressure on public finances, a tricky move before the next general election. The media reports led to an urgent question in Parliament by the Shadow Defence Secretary and has reportedly caused consternation in the MOD.
Further exchanges of prisoners have taken place between Hamas and Israel as the ceasefire holds (albeit shakily). Hamas released 7 Israelis, including four young women who were undertaking military service when they were kidnapped on 7 October, and five Thai citizens, while Israel released over 300 Palestinians, 150 of whom were serving life sentences.
Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has taken maternity leave, announcing the birth of her son Rafael on X this morning. Shadow Scotland Secretary Andrew Bowie has stepped up to the plate to cover her brief.
The Commons saw yet another week of unplanned business take centre stage, with a grand total of nine Ministerial Statements or Urgent Questions taking place over four days. That’s 7 hours of debates on unplanned business this week… half an hour longer than MPs were given, in total, to debate actual government legislation. In the short time they had to debate the measures that will end up on the statute book, they raced through the report stage and third reading of the Water (Special Measures) Bill to strengthen the power of water industry regulators in the UK, careered through the second reading of the Arbitration Bill, and sped through motions related to the Charter for Budget Responsibility and the Welfare Cap.
The Lords had a busy week of debates on subjects ranging from inheritance tax, corporation tax and youth mobility schemes. They also progressed various bits of legislation including the committee stage of the Mental Health Bill – aimed at modernising the rights and support of those with mental health needs in the UK; the Data (Use and Access) Bill – aimed at modernising the UK’s data protection framework; and the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill – aimed at amending the business rates system by giving a tax cut for smaller retail and leisure businesses whilst giving a second jab of the sword at private schools.
On the fifth anniversary of Brexit, Ipsos released new polling revealing that 54% of Britons believe Brexit was the wrong decision, compared to 32% who think it was the right decision. Public opinion is, however, divided along party and referendum lines, with 69% of 2016 leave voters maintaining that Brexit was the right decision while 85% of remain voters said it was the wrong choice. Furthermore, the poll found that 51% of respondents believe Brexit has been more of a failure than a success, with only 13% saying it has been a success. YouGov also carried out a similar poll, which found that 55% of people believed it was wrong for the UK to leave the EU, compared to 30% saying it was right; additionally, 62% of respondents said Brexit had been a failure with only 11% calling it more of a success.
With the Chancellor declaring her support for a third runway at Heathrow this week, Ipsos also conducted polling on British support for airport expansion. 49% of those surveyed supported increasing airport capacity, compared to 35% against, and among those in favour, expanding Heathrow with a third runway was the most popular choice. The primary reason given for opposing airport expansion was the potential harm to the natural environment (58%), followed by concerns about increased carbon emissions (55%).
The enormous potential of technology in social care was the topic of the REFORM think tank’s latest report, looking into how to address the crisis in the adult social care system. It calls for innovation and reform, through adoption of emerging technologies like remote intelligent monitoring and wearable devices which track health vitals. It argued that realising the benefits of new technologies would be a ‘win-win-win’ for those receiving care, local authorities and the NHS, especially at a time when the need is so urgent.
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the UK officially leaving the European Union, and so who better to be the focus of this section than Mr UKIP/Brexit Party/Reform UK himself, Nigel Farage. Appearing on This Morning for a cozy chat with hosts Ben Shepherd and Cat Deeley, Farage was then surrounded by a person in a dragon suit as part of Chinese New Year celebrations. Cue a very awkward few seconds where the dragon danced around Farage, with the Reform UK leader looking slightly unsure about how to react. Looks like This Morning’s caption writer had great pleasure in labelling the segment ‘Year of the Snake’ at the appropriate moment…
We all got our numbers wrong at school at one point or another, but in our childhood experience, it didn’t lead to a rebuke the Education Secretary… Unfortunately for the leader of the Conservative Party, this is exactly what happened to her, after Kemi Badenoch got herself a little bit muddled over the latest stats on apprenticeships. Responding to Bridget Phillipson’s claim that apprenticeship starts, participation and achievements had all increased, Badenoch replied that the stats were ‘under the last Conservative Government’, before Phillipson quickly pointed out that the stats were for August-October 2024… under a Labour Government.
