Today, in his speech at the Treasury Connect Tech Conference held at Bloomberg, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP set out the following four pillars of the Government’s growth plan:
1 ENTERPRISE:
• Creating new businesses by lowering taxes to incentivise entrepreneurs, investors and large companies.
• Ambition to have a competitive tax system of any major companies. That means restraint on spending, reward for risk, access to capital and smarter regulation.
• Seeing Brexit as an opportunity to work with regulators to create an economic environment which is more innovation friendly, and focused on growth.
2 EDUCATION:
• To reduce dependence on migration and become a high skill economy, the ‘E’ of education will be essential – and that means ensuring aspiration and opportunity is as open to those who do not go to university as to those who do.
3 EMPLOYMENT:
• Increase employment by recognising talent which will allow companies to grow more rapidly.
4 EVERYWHERE:
• This means ensuring the benefits of economic development are felt not just in London and the South East but across the whole of the UK.
• Highlighting importance of Levelling Up.
• Focusing on better infrastructure, as well as digital connectivity.
• This year the Government will announce investment zones, mini–Canary Wharfs, supporting each growth industries, focused in high potential but underperforming areas.
• The Chancellor explained that the Government will shortly start a process to identify location of the investment zones.
The Chancellor’s plan is a framework designed to unlock national potential, to position Britain as one of Europe’s most exciting, most innovative, and most prosperous economies. The next few weeks will key for the Government to show the country how this plan will be taken forward.
Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg