Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsSterling drops after Bank of England boss hints at ‘aggressive’ rate cutsCarmakers ramp up pressure on chancellor for EV sales subsidiesRachel Reeves also paved the way for a rise in capital spending at the budget later this month, dropping the broadest possible hint that she could change the government’s fiscal rules to enable this.
“We’ll set out details of the fiscal rules at the budget, but we have got to make sure we unlock that space for capital investment,” she told journalists ahead of a visit to the Liverpool city region today to announce almost £22bn of funding over 25 years for carbon capture and storage projects.
The Guardian will be at the trip with the chancellor, prime minister Keir Starmer, and energy secretary Ed Miliband, later this morning. Reeves suggested she could outline upgraded investment plans at her 30 October tax and spending event. At the Conservatives’ last budget in March forecasts showed public investment was set to fall from 2.4% of national output to about 1.7% by 2028-29. Labour’s manifesto plans would limit that drop to about 1.8%.
However, Reeves hinted she could go further, saying of Tory plans to cut investment spending that she was “not going to make those mistakes”.She said:“They were cutting back on investment, at exactly the time we need to be increasing investment in our economy.“I haven’t hidden my ambitions to want to boost capital spending in the UK. I absolutely want to do that, it’s how to break out of this sort of doom loop of low growth and deteriorating living standards. That means prioritising capital investment, particularly capital investment that leverages in the private sector.” Continue reading…
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Sterling drops after Bank of England boss hints at ‘aggressive’ rate cutsCarmakers ramp up pressure on chancellor for EV sales subsidies
Rachel Reeves also paved the way for a rise in capital spending at the budget later this month, dropping the broadest possible hint that she could change the government’s fiscal rules to enable this.
“We’ll set out details of the fiscal rules at the budget, but we have got to make sure we unlock that space for capital investment,” she told journalists ahead of a visit to the Liverpool city region today to announce almost £22bn of funding over 25 years for carbon capture and storage projects.
The Guardian will be at the trip with the chancellor, prime minister Keir Starmer, and energy secretary Ed Miliband, later this morning.
Reeves suggested she could outline upgraded investment plans at her 30 October tax and spending event. At the Conservatives’ last budget in March forecasts showed public investment was set to fall from 2.4% of national output to about 1.7% by 2028-29. Labour’s manifesto plans would limit that drop to about 1.8%.
However, Reeves hinted she could go further, saying of Tory plans to cut investment spending that she was “not going to make those mistakes”.
She said:
“They were cutting back on investment, at exactly the time we need to be increasing investment in our economy.
“I haven’t hidden my ambitions to want to boost capital spending in the UK. I absolutely want to do that, it’s how to break out of this sort of doom loop of low growth and deteriorating living standards. That means prioritising capital investment, particularly capital investment that leverages in the private sector.”