‘In our first 100 days, this Labour government has set a course for fresh hope and good growth in every postcode’, the Chancellor John Healey writes for The Mirror
The Chancellor said Britain had fresh hope(Image: House of Commons/Press Association)
I promised to give Britain Breathing Space now and hope for the Future.
As you pick up your Daily Mirror today, I am proud that this Labour government is delivering on this promise.
Breathing space for people now by giving 20 million households a £100 energy payment this winter, extending the cut to VAT on electricity bills to July and freezing fuel duty until next year. This on top of scrapping standing charges on household gas bills for 23 million homes — charges people pay even when they use no gas – and making the weekly food shop cheaper by suspending tariffs on over 100 foods.
Our high streets need breathing space too. Local shops, cafés, pubs and gyms are part of what make the places we live, the places we love. I’m changing the rules so 70,000 more businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure pay no business rates at all. And for other businesses in those sectors, rates will be frozen in real terms for two years.
I will never be complacent about the pressure people are under, driven by conflict overseas, and I know things are tough.
But there is hope for the future. We are giving local communities more powers to shape their own destiny, we have fully funded our defence plans to keep Britain safe, and we are kickstarting the long term, radical reform of the energy market that is needed to produce cheaper power.
And just like households up and down the country have to, this government will be disciplined with its finances.
Britain has shown strong resilience. The UK’s economic growth in the first half of this year was the fastest in the G7. Experts in the IMF have called our plans ‘stand out.’
In our first 100 days, this Labour government has set a course for fresh hope and good growth in every postcode.
We are working towards the Britain we want to be.
