Chris Fletcher, Policy Director at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, reviews the Labour Party Conference.
Once again Parliament is in recess. This time because of the party conferences currently taking place. This now means that in the 12 weeks since the election there have been just 5 weeks when Parliament has been sitting and within which Government can start to enact its programme of 40 Bills contained in the King’s Speech. Not an ideal way to start your term in office and it does feel like they’ve gone missing in action. However with a return date set for October 7th after the Conservative conference next week, work can restart and, taking the theme of Labour’s conference this week, change can begin.
Liverpool this week offered the Government a chance to remind and reset the key policies set out in the manifesto and the days immediately following the election in July with change being very much the buzzword. The Deputy PM and MP for Ashton-under-Lyne Angela Rayner kicked things off on Sunday when she reaffirmed the commitment to house building and a promise to unlock further devolution and more powers to mayors.
It seems that the default position on planning will be ‘yes’ for applications that meet high standards for quality and design – it remains to be seen how practical this is in reality, though the intention cannot be faulted. With 300,000 new homes now the UK target on an annual basis, GM’s target is 15,000 per year (last year the total was just over half of this) there will need to be a significant boost to this beyond changes to planning.
The Employment Rights Bill, another major change, is scheduled for October in Parliament and this is one of the flagship manifesto policies. This will still be a significant Act of Parliament when passed and we will monitor this closely as there will be sizeable changes to ‘basic’ employment law that will impact all businesses around zero hours contracts and day one employment rights.
The Chancellor’s speech on Monday was framed under the banner of ‘no return to austerity’ whilst doubling down on tough decisions already made especially around the Winter fuel allowance and making clear there will be challenges ahead.
A new Industrial Strategy will be launched in April next year alongside new Local Growth Plans all sounding good but whilst the tone may have been more upbeat, the inescapable fact is that the Autumn Budget will not have many giveaways, if any at all. The underlying messaging of hard choices and the ongoing review of government spending all point to a government looking to balance the books as quickly as possible as well as trying to rebalance public perception away from the expectation of more austerity.
The PM’s speech on Tuesday was again very forthright in outlining the challenges ahead but basically he asked the country to stick with it and things will get better - all delivered under the banner of ‘Change Begins’.
We know there’s no money splashing around but what there is must therefore be used to invest in the country whether that’s in transport, energy or the skills system. In Treasury eyes these are still viewed too often simply as costs.
So, how about beginning a change right at the heart of government itself and get a realistic approach from Treasury that spending money isn’t always a waste if it goes on enablers of growth and prosperity? Now that really would be a change for the better.