Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced plans to hand England's metro mayors a share of national tax revenues, as part of a radical push to rebalance the economy and boost growth. In her Mais lecture at Bayes Business School in London, she promised 'a genuine break with the past' that would shift spending power away from Westminster.
Reeves said the UK is 'the most politically centralised of advanced democracies, and one of the most geographically unequal'. Treasury officials will bring forward a plan at the autumn budget to allow regional leaders to receive a share of national taxes, starting with income tax. She also announced £2.3bn in new city investment funds for England's metro mayors.
In a wide-ranging speech, the chancellor argued that innovation and AI, closer ties with Europe, and regional growth provided the biggest opportunities for the UK. She announced the creation of an AI Economic Institute to help identify opportunities, saying the government wanted the British people to benefit from them.
Reeves also cited research that Brexit could have knocked up to 8% off UK GDP, saying it had caused damage. She said directly to European allies: 'This government believes a deeper relationship is in the interest of the whole of Europe.'
The chancellor agreed that the student loan system was 'broken', but argued she couldn't fix it yet and that it was right to prioritise child poverty, the NHS and defence. The TUC urged the government to show 'relentless ambition' in strengthening ties with the EU.
