Press Story

IPPR has reacted to Rachel Reeves’s speech, Harry Quilter Pinner, executive director of IPPR, said:

“Rachel Reeves is right to say Britain’s economy has huge potential. Unlocking it requires more than a faster version of the same old playbook. For too long governments have left it to the market which has resulted in unequal, narrow and polluting growth - that too few people experience in their pay packets and communities.

"The Chancellor’s ambitious and detailed proposal for developing the Oxford Cambridge growth corridor is the kind of intervention we need to see across the country. Businesses in Oxford and Cambridge are global leaders in innovation, but we need a growth strategy that unleashes that same dynamism in the Midlands and across the North.

"To achieve this, the government must make their industrial policy the cornerstone of their strategy, building up the industries of the future across the country. That means investing in infrastructure, housing, and skills across other regions and nations, ensuring every part of the UK is a great place to do business.

“Clean growth must also be a cornerstone of this strategy. The transition to net zero is not just a challenge but an extraordinary opportunity for British business to lead the world manufacturing the batteries and assembling the trains required to meet net zero.

“Growing airports mostly in the Southeast isn't the growth story it's stacked up to be. The investments the Chancellor outlined in rail connections and clean manufacturing are a better route to growth. A truly pro-growth and pro-business agenda must deliver the stability, ambition and support that businesses need to seize these opportunities, ensuring growth isn’t just faster, but fairer and better for everyone.”