Ministerial speeches have two functions. They tell the audience what the government is doing and they explain why. Both elements were present when Rachel Reeves addressed an audience in Oxfordshire on Wednesday, but there was a lot more policy than argument. The chancellor listed many actions to kickstart growth in the economy. There will be a lot of new infrastructure and new transport links – including expansion of Heathrow and other airports. The area between Oxford and Cambridge will be developed into Britain’s Silicon Valley. Ms Reeves pledged more international trade and more state subsidies for green technology.
The list was long, the persuasion was cursory. The chancellor’s economic case is that weak productivity growth has been the malaise holding back Britain’s economy. The remedy is a supply-side assault on regulation. The government will ease rules that are deemed to have thwarted crucial developments in the past. It certainly can take too long and cost too much to build in Britain. The saga of HS2 – approved in 2012, started in 2017, not due for completion until 2033 and likely to cost nearly double the original £37.5bn estimate – is a parable of that dysfunction.
