New British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves yesterday vowed to immediately “fix the foundations” of Britain’s economy, fueled by onshore wind power and house building, after her Labour Party won power.
In her first major speech since being appointed the UK’s first female chancellor of the exchequer by new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Reeves said there was “no time to waste” on reversing “the legacy of 14 years of chaos and economic irresponsibility” under Conservative Party rule.
“We are going to get Britain building again,” she said.
Photo: Reuters
Reeves, 45, takes over as chancellor with Britain’s economy recently out of recession, its inflation rate back to normal levels and as the Bank of England prepares to cut interest rates.
Center-left Labour, which had put growing the UK economy at the heart of its manifesto, won Thursday’s general election with a sizeable majority.
The “new treasury analysis I requested over the weekend exposed the opportunities lost” under the Conservatives, Reeves told business leaders in London.
She said that weak growth meant the UK last year missed out on ￡58 billion (US$74.43 billion) in tax revenue, affecting public services.
However, growing the economy would occur alongside “robust fiscal rules,” with Britain’s debt having ballooned in the past few years owing to huge state spending caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and surging energy prices, she said.
The chancellor said that Labour would double onshore wind energy by 2030, helping the island nation move closer to net zero carbon emissions.
“That means immediately removing the de facto ban on onshore wind in England, in place since 2015,” the Labour government said in a separate statement yesterday.
Reeves also said that she would consult on designating onshore wind projects as “significant infrastructure projects,” meaning planning decisions on those projects would be taken nationally, not locally.
The government would also reform the National Planning Policy Framework, launching a consultation on a growth-focused approach to the planning system before the end of the month, she said.
British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who is also responsible for housing policy, would intervene in planning where she believes the regional or national economy would benefit from a development, Reeves said.
The Labour government would also bring back mandatory housing targets, the chancellor said.
They had been ditched by the previous Conservative government in late 2022.
A new task force would be set up to accelerate stalled housing sites, which could speed up developments at several sites across the country where more than 14,000 homes could be built, Reeves said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS