Rachel Reeves is set to announce her intention to create Europe’s Silicon Valley between two famous UK cities today as she outlines her plan for growth in a major speech today.
The scheme will be between Oxford and Cambridge and comprise of improved infrastructure so that the area is at the forefront of science and technological advances.
Also included in her speech is thought to be the green light for the expansion of Heathrow – including a third runway – Gatwick and Luton airports.
In addition, is is believed that the Government will give its backing to a redevelopment of Manchester United’s football stadium, Old Trafford.
The Chancellor is due to speak at 10am, after Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “clear out the regulatory weeds” to encourage growth.
Ms Reeves is expected to say that Britain has been “held back” and “accepted stagnation”.
She will add: “For too long, we have accepted low expectations, accepted stagnation and accepted the risk of decline. We can do so much better,” she will say.
“Low growth is not our destiny. But growth will not come without a fight. Without a Government that is on the side of working people. Willing to take the right decisions now to change our country’s course for the better.”
Writing in The Times, the Prime Minister criticised the “morass of regulation that effectively bans billions of pounds” of investment, describing “thickets of red tape” that have “spread through the British economy like Japanese knotweed”.
He added that ministers will “kick down the barriers to building, clear out the regulatory weeds and allow a new era of British growth to bloom”.
Sir Keir also invoked Margaret Thatcher.
He said: “A change in the economic weather can only ever come from a supply-side expansion of the nation’s productive power.
“In the 1980s, the Thatcher government deregulated finance capital. In the New Labour era, globalisation increased the opportunities for trade. This is our equivalent.”
