Healey says he is also announcing that the I’m announcing today that South Yorkshire and Liverpool cityregions, the North East England. region and the Cardiff Capital Region will all become the latest strategic partners of the National Wealth Fund.
Healey allocates £150m from British Business Bank for start-ups in north of England
Healey confirms he is announcing an allocation of £150m from the British Business Bank, £150 million for scale-ups in the north of England.
In its news release, the Treasury has given a bit more detail about what this will do.
The new fund, from money already allocated to the British Business Bank, will provide larger investments of between £5m and £15m and is expected to back university spinouts and other ambitious businesses across the North, from Liverpool and Manchester to Leeds, Sheffield, Hull and Newcastle.
The British Business Bank will commit up to £150m, with the proposed fund intended to attract additional private investment. By bringing public and private capital together, it will give some of the north’s most promising companies the backing to grow, create jobs and build their future in the communities where they started.
Healey says he will set out 'roadmap to fiscal devolution' in budget
Healey says Andy Burnham set out in his statement to MPs last week what he thought had gone wrong
The fundamentals of our economy [were] hollowed out through a series of past policy decisions, political power was centralised, weakening the relationships between the people, the businesses and the institutions who can make things happen beyond Whitehall. The economic enablers were privatised and outsourced, leaving accountability to a thicket of arm’s length bodies and regulators, too often without the predictability or the pace that underpins a thriving market economy. And our country was deindustrialised as the cost to make anything, to build anything here soared, and our dependence on unreliable sources grew, including in areas critical to our national security and sovereignty.
The government is committed to “a fundamental shift, a shift that starts with putting power and resources with local leaders to build infrastructure, boost private investment and deliver local industrial strategies”.
He says he wants growth in the future to be “written in more places”. (See 9.29am.)
At the budget, he says, he will set out “a roadmap to fiscal devolution, a permanent transfer of power and resources from Whitehall to regions with greater business rates retention for local councils and strategic authorities [and[ grants from central government replaced by a share of local income tax for every mayoral strategic authority beginning in 2028”.
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Healey says he wants to 'draw the line' under ever-rising costs for business
Healey says he wants to take decisions that improve business confidence.
Let me be clear, I recognise that the costs of business, its energy bills, regulation, burdens, planning constraints, labour costs, have grown since Covid and I want to draw the line.
And whether it is the cost of business or the cost of living, the only way we deal with these in the long term is growth.
I want to see this country as a country of wealth creation. I want our government decisions and policies to raise the levels of confidence and investment and profit in British businesses.
Healey says making 'Great Britain growth Britain again' is 'central' to his mission as chancellor
Healey says he wants to make ‘Great Britain growth Britain again”.
Fiscal credibility is indivisible from growth.
It was the heart of those G20 discussions just the other day in North Carolina, because growth is the sustainable pathway out of indebtedness into prosperity.
And while Britain’s growth trajectory has been weak, this now must change. This is essential. It is possible. It is central to my purpose as chancellor.
Ask an economist what growth is and you’ll get a number. But ask the country and you’ll get a different answer. A young person getting a new job in a company that’s on the up. A sole trader winning a new contract that pays for a holiday with their kids. A business winning a new export order, giving the community around it a new lease of life.
And I dedicate myself to this mission as chancellor to make Great Britain growth Britain again, with more investment, more innovation and more jobs.
Healey says there's 'nothing progressive' about paying debt interest, and being 'true to our values' means controlling spending
Healey stresses the government’s commitment to fiscal discipline.
On my first day in the Treasury, I said that fiscal discipline was my first priority of chancellor. It underwrites every promise this government makes.
And the prime minister and I are in lockstep in our commitment to meeting the fiscal rules at the upcoming budget, to balancing the books with a buffer to protect against uncertainty, to controlling borrowing to bear down on inflation, and reducing long term pressures on our public finances.
And this isn’t about lines on a graph or numbers on a spreadsheet. It’s a matter of values.
And there’s nothing progressive about the government spending £1 in every ten on debt interest.
You know, if debt interest were a government department, it would be the second biggest in Whitehall after health, bigger than defence, the Home Office and justice put together.
That’s why staying true to our values means being honest about the need to control government spending.
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Healey starts by stressing the government’s commitment to growth. And he strikes a positive tone, stressing “our belief in Britain’s future”.
He goes on:
Because the UK is home to nearly half the most innovative companies in Europe. We’re world leaders in life sciences, in defence, technology and creative industries, financial services, our science and research base is world beating, our capital markets are some of the largest and most vibrant anywhere in the world, and the UK stock market is hitting all-time highs.
He says he is building on the work done by Keir Starmer. and Rachel Reeves restoring Britain’s fiscal discipline.
He blames Liz Truss for setting that back.
UK debt costs were historically around the G7 average until Liz Truss’s mini budget crashed the economy and collapsed confidence in Britain’s fiscal strength.
So since 2022, we have been paying that trust penalty as we battle to re-establish belief in Britain and the UK’s fiscal sustainability.
The Labour government is now telling “a new story” about Britain, he says. (See 9.29am.)
John Healey is just starting his speech. He is in the West Midlands, and he says he is pleased Richard Parker, the Labour West Midlands mayor, is in the audience. Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, is there too, along with Healey’s fellow Treasury ministers.
This is from Faisal Islam, the BBC’s economics editor, on John Healey’s speech.
New Chancellor John Healey about to give his debut speech in West Midlands setting the scene for the Budget trying to sustain an upbeat tone on the economy, given upticks in consumer and business confidence and decent comparative GDP figures so far in 2026, but faced with turmoil in global bond markets and just a few miles away biggest manufacturer JLR shedding jobs… tricky balancing act. One term to look out for - “Pufin” which means Public Finance institutions such as the British Business Bank and National Wealth Fund, which have room to expand investments, while less constrained by borrowing rules.
bottom line - this doesn’t seem to be laying ground for significant tax rises as the equivalent speeches in 2024/2025 did… but he’s just about to start…
'Even Reeves had more vision' - opposition parties not impressed by advance briefing on Healey's speech
The Conservatives and Reform UK have claimed that advance briefing about the John Healey speeches suggests he does not have a proper policy for growth.
This is from Andrew Griffith, the shadow chancellor.
This is a policy-light word salad from a chancellor who seemingly does not understand how growth is created. It will do little to comfort hard-working families and businesses across the country who are worried about more tax rises or the fact that government borrowing rates are near a 28 year high.
And this is from Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson.
Even Rachel Reeves had more vision than this guff. Days after a market meltdown, when grip and direction are required, John Healey has revealed himself to be an empty vessel with no idea about how to rescue our economy.
And the Lib Dems are criticising Healey’s stance on Europe. Here is the advance comment on the chancellor’s speech from Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader and Treasury spokesperson.
The chancellor can’t seriously talk about ‘turbocharging innovation’ or helping British manufacturers sell abroad whilst ignoring the Brexit trade barriers choking our exporters.
Huge swathes of our economy were left to rot by an incompetent Conservative Party, but now Labour are following the path of stagnant growth with their commitment to Brexit red lines that will see British businesses continue to be wrapped up in red tape as they have been since the damaging Brexit deal.
Healey says he wants growth story 'written in more places'
John Healey is about to deliver his speech on the economy. Here are extracts that were released overnight by the Treasury.
On the UK turning the corner
A new story about Britain. An optimistic story. One of resilience. Pride. Huge latent potential. A country turning a corner. A country whose people, businesses and communities are ready to seize the opportunity of new technologies and new ideas.
On what makes good growth
Ask an economist what growth is and you’ll get a number. But ask the country and you’ll get a different answer. A young person getting a new job in a company that’s on the up. A sole trader winning a new contract that pays for a holiday with their kids. A business winning a new export order, giving the community around it a new lease of life.
The prime minister laid out a clear diagnosis of what has gone wrong in the past. The solution is a fundamental shift that starts with putting power in the right places.The next chapter of Britain’s growth story will be written in more places.
On the importance of wealth creation
Instead of getting in the way with complexity and red tape, we need a strong, strategic centre wired to enable local leaders and their ambitions.
That’s why we created No 10 North, working on a dual mission with the Treasury, removing obstacles so that local leaders and businesses can pull together to drive growth and productivity.
I want to see wealth creation in this country. I want to see businesses make a profit. And to create the conditions for that we need an active, accountable state at all levels to remove blockages and create the conditions for more investment.
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Minister condemns ‘thuggish’ far-right, anti-migrant protesters in Portsmouth
Good morning. John Healey is giving his first major speech on economic policy since he became chancellor seven weeks ago. It is meant to be the main government news of the morning and, as Pippa Crerar writes in her preview story, Healey will argue the government’s plans to boost growth across the whole country will enable the British economy to “turn a corner”.
Healey’s deputy, Emma Reynolds, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been giving interviews as part of the build-up.
But, as well as taking questions about growth and tax, Reynolds has also found herself taking questions about the latest far-right protest about immigration, triggered by a large boat carrying migrants arriving for the first time in Portsmouth.
Commenting on the behaviour of the protesters, who blocked roads and some of whom were masked, Reynolds said:
This is thuggish and intimidating behaviour. This is not peaceful protest.
Obviously, as a politician, I absolutely support people’s right to peaceful protest. But this crosses a line and I just want to take the opportunity to thank the police and other emergency services who have brought this under control.
We do not want to see this kind of behaviour anywhere, frankly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Around 9.30am: John Healey, the chancellor, gives a speech on economic growth in the West Midlands.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Emma Reynolds, the chief secretary to the Treasury, is due to make a statement to MPs.
Afternoon: MPs start debating the remaining stages of the health bill.
And Chris Bryant, the Northern Ireland secretary, is today meeting the Northern Ireland political leaders, as MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) return to Stormont after the summer recess.
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