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
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
The US overtaking China as Taiwan’s top export destination could boost industrial development and wage growth, given the US is a high-income economy, an economist said yesterday. However, Taiwan still needs to diversify its export markets due to the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s administration, said Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University. Taiwan’s exports soared to a record US$51.74 billion last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and continued orders, with information and communication technology (ICT) and audio/video products leading all sectors. The US reclaimed its position as Taiwan’s top export market, accounting for
RSS