In her attempt to lift the economic gloom, has the Chancellor sold the North down the river?
All the headlines are being made by the third runway at Heathrow and the Oxford/Cambridge silicon corridor. There’s backing for the Lower Thames Crossing but little sign of new support for the Mersey Tidal barrier, HS2 lite or Trans Pennine rail.
There is to be investment in the Teesside and Wrexham areas, a possible reopening of the South Yorkshire airport and there’s backing for the redevelopment around Manchester United. On the latter we will all be watching to see that public money is not spent helping a vastly wealthy Premier League club.
Rachel Reeves drive for growth speech was a recognition that Labour has overdone the gloom and harmed business confidence with some of its tax measures. Bosses have been shocked by the Labour Party who talked about supporting business in opposition, came in and wacked them with National Insurance increases and changes in employment law that will not help with growth.
Many of the infrastructure investments will take a long time. That is a fact not a criticism. Downtown has called for long term thinking by politicians for years. It is just to point out that the immediate issues of the cost of living and long waiting times at hospitals are not putting people in a mood to share the Chancellor’s newly found “tigger” approach to growth.
Let’s consider some of the things that could help with growth. One is unravelling much of the Brexit trade nonsense. Reeves did indicate that the government is beginning to overcome its nervousness in relation to Europe, but they are a long way from the Lib Dem’s call for a customs union.
Then there are the measures on workers’ rights. Many are reasonable but more working from home seems to have the support of the, otherwise excellent Business Secretary Jonny Reynolds. It is clearly incompatible with growth to not have your employees in the office exchanging views and coming up with bright ideas. The public are growing increasingly frustrated with the poor levels of service with people working out of the office. I heard the other day that somebody wanted a site visit over a planning application, only to find that the relevant officer was working from South Africa!
One does wonder whether the Chancellor has caught Trumpitis. This sudden urge to deregulate, sweep away planning rules, “don’t worry about the bats and newts” has a resonance with Trump’s first few days in office which has seen a full on attack on the green agenda, civil servants, trans people, and the international order.
Is this what people want? The young appear to with a survey showing strong support for a dictator in one survey of this age group.
We need to all buckle up for the ride and see if Labour’s drive for growth comes off, and at what cost.
