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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics

How Labour can build a stronger British economy

The Chancellor visits Northern Ireland12/08/2025. Belfast, United Kingdom. Chancellor Rachel Reeves visits Thales in Belfast. Treasury. Picture by PressEye for HM Treasury
Rachel Reeves on a visit to Thales, a hi-tech defence company, in Belfast earlier this month. ‘We must exploit the opportunities of the digital revolution and advance our skills base,’ writes Prof Stephen Barber. Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/Treasury

If Rachel Reeves is serious about ensuring that Labour’s second year in power is all about a stronger economy that rewards working people across the country (In our first year Labour fixed the foundations – now we must build a stronger economy for a renewed Britain, 13 August), she needs to rethink what your editorial called the UK’s “broken growth model” (6 August). The growth that Britain needs is an increase in economic activity that improves social and environmental infrastructure nationwide. This involves a huge increase in secure, well-paid jobs to rebuild a more resilient future economy.

The last thing that is required is Reeves’s obsession with more deregulation of the City and pressuring savers into investing in the stock market. What is needed instead is a massive increase in a socially and green-oriented bond market that will provide secure returns for savers.

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