UK Chancellor John Healey to Deliver First Major Speech on Economic Growth

LONDON — Britain’s new top finance minister plans to give his first major speech in the role next week, which is expected to focus on boosting Britain’s ailing economic growth.

Chancellor John Healey intends to give the address on Sept. 7, said four people with knowledge of the date who were granted anonymity to discuss internal planning, following weeks of preparation since Prime Minister Andy Burnham gave him the role in July. Officials are looking at staging it at a manufacturing plant outside London.

The Treasury declined to comment.

Burnham revealed in mid-August that Healey was working on a speech on the government’s economic agenda. The date of next Monday was first reported by Politics at Sam and Anne’s, the morning briefing podcast by POLITICO and Sky News.

The speech will focus heavily on growth, said two of the people quoted above — weeks after Burnham moved responsibility for local economic growth strategy from the Treasury to his new prime ministerial office in Manchester, No. 10 North.

One of the four people cited at the start of this story said the speech is likely to focus less on individual spending policies ahead of the Oct. 28 budget and more on a broader vision and initiatives, including Burnham’s promises to hand more economic levers to regional leaders.

“This isn’t a rushed job — it’s a serious bit of thinking,” they added. Another of the four people said: “It’s the government’s version of their theory of growth.”

A government official, who is not one of the four individuals cited above, said the speech has involved work by multiple government departments contributing potential ideas. “It’s crossed a lot of people’s radar,” they added.

Some in Westminster may see the speech as Healey seeking to emphasize his own role.

A Treasury official, also not one of the cited individuals, said growth would be a dual mission for both the prime minister’s and chancellor’s offices. They added the Treasury would drive growth policy across Whitehall, that every department would have a focus on growth and Burnham’s pledge of “good growth in every postcode” would take the whole government working as one to achieve.

Burnham told MPs on Tuesday that he believed growth had to be “driven with the full authority of the very center of government, in close partnership with the Treasury.” Louise Haigh, his first secretary who has previously described the Treasury as “imperial,” joked about the change of responsibilities Wednesday: “It's a little bit of a chip on its empire.”

Britain’s GDP grew by 0.4 percent in the three months to June, while rising bond yields have left Healey with the highest cost of servicing government debt for decades. Both squeeze his ability to intervene in key industries. Burnham has refused to rule out tax rises in the budget.

One banking lobbyist briefed separately on the event said Healey’s speech could be “shaped by market movements” seen this week, with the finance minister likely using it to calm bond traders with a pro-growth but policy-lite approach.

The speech is also likely to touch on Burnham’s promises to “reindustrialize” Britain, given the continuing focus on the defense industry. Healey is under pressure to pledge that Britain’s military spending will reach 3 percent of GDP by 2030, as he demanded when he resigned as the U.K.’s defense minister earlier this year. He has said he will not name a date for hitting 3 percent until next year.

James Fitzgerald contributed reporting.