Chancellor takes axe to delays holding back growth
Chancellor John Healey has set out his plan to drive growth in every postcode.
- Chancellor John Healey has set out his plan to drive growth in every postcode, backing Britain’s extraordinary strengths to deliver benefits across the whole country.
- New ambition to double the number of UK unicorn firms in clear signal of ambition for British economy, alongside powers which will help businesses test and scale technologies from delivery robots to medical treatments.
- Northern 500 initiative and £150 million British Business Bank fund to back high-growth firms across the North.
Speaking at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry today (Monday 7 September), the Chancellor laid out how he will take an axe to delays holding back growth, from backing British business and giving local leaders more power, to clearing away the delays that hold back investment.
Changes to the judicial review process for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects announced today will fix a system where every decision can face another challenge, consultation or review before a single brick is laid or a spade enters the ground.
Sending a clear signal on his level of ambition for UK business, he also set a goal to double the number of unicorn firms – companies valued at over £1 billion - in the UK.
The government will work with the Business Department to identify the next generation of high-growth companies and help them overcome regulatory barriers, access capital, and win government contracts as an early customer.
And he announced the Northern 500: which will bring together 500 of the North’s most ambitious mid-sized businesses into a single growth community led by the Great North partnership of Mayors and supported by the private sector and central government.
Chancellor John Healey MP said:
The UK is the third in the world for innovation. Our record is extraordinary… But too often, ideas born here in Britain have to go elsewhere to find the capital they need to grow…
I’m setting an ambition to double the number of unicorn firms in this country. Together, with Johnny Reynolds I will identify the next wave of unicorns, with the state as an early first customer to ensure they have the necessary backing to scale.
The Chancellor also committed to delivering new powers to oversee ‘sandboxing’ that will be ready to deploy next year. Sandboxing is the term for how companies and regulators can work together to test new models or features in safe and controlled environments.
The new powers, to be delivered through the Business Department’s Regulating for Growth Bill, will let businesses test cutting-edge products and technologies safely, establish what works and scale more quickly.
Potential use cases of these new powers include patient access to innovative treatments, rollout of delivery robots, defence technologies or maritime autonomous vehicles.
Today’s speech also set out reforms to tackle the bureaucracy holding back growth and investment, putting decision-making back where it belongs and helping ensure people in every postcode benefit from a government focused on delivery.
Chancellor John Healey MP said:
I will take an axe to the thicket of consultation, litigation and administration that has a stranglehold too often on private investment.
And let me say this – the people who elected this government expect us to get on with it. The role of government is to act.
Judicial review challenges typically delay nationally important infrastructure projects by a year and a half. For example, Sizewell C was delayed by two judicial reviews, both of which ended up being dismissed by the courts, delaying the delivery of clean power to the equivalent of six million homes and 10,000 jobs at peak construction.
The Chancellor has also instructed the government to embrace risk when it needs to in order to get things done. Under the current system, decisions have been held back, for example:
- Despite 99% of respondents to a Call for Evidence supporting microchipping cats in the same way as dogs in 2019, it took nearly 5 years to make it happen: one call for evidence, two further consultations, legislation through Parliament and then finally enacted in June 2024.
- The planning process for East West Rail began in 2019 and has already involved four rounds of public consultation in 2019, 2021, 2024 and 2026. And it could still face more challenges before getting over the line.
That’s why from today, Ministers have been told that public consultations are not always required and have encouraged departments to find other ways to get views from the public and experts when developing policies.
The reforms support the Prime Minister’s drive for a faster, more effective state through No10 North, which brings together decisionmakers from across government to accelerate growth and strengthen delivery. The Treasury and No10 North have been working in lockstep and directly with departments to identify where projects are stalling, why, and which changes to law, regulation or process are needed to get them moving again.
The reforms also reflect lessons from the Fingleton Review, which highlighted how excessive risk aversion and slow decision-making can hold back the delivery of major infrastructure projects.
To tackle delays holding back growth and investment, the government will introduce a package of reforms to give parliament the ability designate and approve the country’s most important infrastructure and give them significant enhanced protection from legal challenge, reduce unnecessary consultations and reporting requirements, ensure legal challenges are raised and resolved earlier, and make clear that legal risk should inform ministers’ decisions, not dictate them.
Together, the changes will help deliver major projects more quickly while strengthening democratic accountability and giving greater certainty once decisions have been taken.
The government will also launch a review of the costs of rail infrastructure in the UK in the coming weeks, to identify further practical reforms to radically cut the costs of delivering new rail infrastructure in the UK.
Together, these measures will help build a state that delivers rather than delays, giving government greater confidence to act and ensuring approved projects can move forward more quickly.
The reforms form part of the government’s wider mission to drive good growth in every Postcode, unlocking the investment needed to create opportunities across the country.
They are a key step in realising No10 North’s focus on stripping away the administrative sludge that has built up around government, restoring democratic accountability and replacing a culture of process with a culture of delivery. No 10 North will continue working with the rest of government to identify further blockages in the months ahead.
More information
The key measures to prevent delays holding back growth and investment include:
- Parliament will be able to designate and approve the country’s most important infrastructure projects giving them significant enhanced protection from legal challenge. This expands plans first proposed for critical energy infrastructure, extending the parliamentary authorisation mechanism to a wider range of nationally important projects. The relevant Secretary of State would identify projects of critical national importance, with Parliament voting to approve their designation and final consent.
- The government also plans to introduce a fixed Challenge Window, which will ensure points of legal challenge are identified and addressed earlier, helping prevent delays after consent has already been granted. This will provide greater certainty once decisions have been taken.
- Departments will be expected to reduce unnecessary consultations and ensure they are only undertaken where there is a clear reason to do so. The government intends to legislate to reduce the number of consultations and reporting requirements on the statute book. Following the speech, the Chancellor and First Secretary of State Louise Haigh will write to departments setting out the government’s new approach to decision-making, making clear that ministers should focus on delivery and only use consultations where there is a clear reason to do so.
- The Attorney General will also publish updated guidance making clear that legal risk should inform ministers’ decisions, not dictate them. Businesses take risks every day in order to invest, innovate and grow – this government believes it should have the confidence to make decisions, act in the public interest and be judged on the outcomes it delivers.
The speech follows several announcements by the Chancellor in the past week to support British innovation and drive growth, including:
- Launching the Sovereign AI’s £100 million R&D Procurement Scheme. This scheme will help UK AI start-ups develop and test new technologies by giving them the government as first customer to support innovation, commercialisation and UK AI sovereignty.
- Announcing major changes to the Green Book, the Treasury’s manual for appraising public investment decisions, which will mean the future benefits of long-term investment are given greater weight than ever before.
- Further underlining his commitment to putting place at the heart of his plan, the Chancellor also announced a new £150 million British Business Bank scale-up fund to help the most innovative and fast-growing firms in the North of England grow, create jobs and attract private investment while remaining rooted in their communities.
Today’s announcement also follows yesterday’s announcement that the government is planning to free family firms and businesses across the country from excessive, time-consuming paperwork, with proposals for simpler reporting rules for SMEs, exempting more businesses from audits and moving to a digital-first approach by making electronic communications to shareholders the default. It comes as the government is committed to reducing the administrative burden of regulation by 25% by the end of the Parliament – or £5.6 billion annually.
And later this autumn, the Chancellor and Business Secretary will convene key regulators to kickstart work ahead of the Spending Review to identify where businesses are being held back and make practical changes to cut through.