Starmer reaches out to business – private enterprise is only way country pays its way in world

Sir Keir Starmer said Labour would “champion the need for a competitive tax regime” and that a changed Labour party recognises that “private enterprise is the only way this country pays its way in the world”.

In his leader’s speech at his party’s conference in Liverpool Starmer  mapped out his missions to build more houses and green energy projects and that he would “beat the blockers” qnd “bulldoze through” regulations and planning rules which delayed building projects, especially on the green belt.

“Business is ready to join us in this endeavour” he said.

“I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with leading CEOs who tell me it’s the chopping and changing. The sticking plaster politics. The chaos. That is holding back investment in our country.”

On planning, Starmer said his reforms to the planning system would build 1.5 million homes over the next Parliament.

The plan includes a blitz of planning reforms, a plan for new towns, a package of devolution to Mayors, with stronger powers over planning and control over housing investment, a ‘planning passport’ for urban brownfield development; with a fast track approval and delivery of high-density housing on urban brownfield sites; and support for younger people to get on the housing ladder with a government-backed mortgage guarantee scheme.

He said the Conservative government has allowed planning permissions to “collapse to a record low because they are too weak to stand up to their backbenchers, members, and cronies whose interests are best served by limiting the supply of housing to buy and rent,” claiming new home completions are forecast to have dropped to as little as 160,000 per year.

On an industrial and economic plan, speaking on Sunday morning ahead, Starmer said: “We want growth across the whole of the country, not just growth in London and the south east, with ‘redistribution’ as a one-word plan for the rest of the country: growth everywhere.

“In addition to businesses, we’ve been talking to our local mayors about economic hubs and how we drive this across the whole of the United Kingdom.”

He also reiterated a sector deal for the automotive industry as part of their modern industrial strategy which he said will give British industry its future back.

The party’s plan, drafted in partnership with industry, aims to address issues at every stage of production, from securing resilient supply chains and a skilled workforce, to supporting British manufacturing, to removing the barriers for consumers to transition and increase demand for electric vehicles.

The sector deal will secure British automotive manufacturing for decades to come, generating two million electric cars and creating 80,000 high skilled jobs. This will be first of several plans for sectors key to achieving the party’s missions to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7.

Jonathan Reynolds MP, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, said: “Growing up in the shadow of the Nissan plant in Sunderland I know the impact good manufacturing jobs have for communities. Every family deserves the chance to have an affordable, reliable car in their driveway. Labour knows the value of vehicles to our economy and society – that’s why we have a plan to drive the British automotive industry confidently into the future.

“Battery factories on our shores, reliable charging networks in every part of the country, secure supply chains, increased consumer demand and 80,000 more high skilled jobs. Labour has a plan to give British industry it’s future back.”

Summarising, Starmer promised: “A Britain strong enough, stable enough, secure enough for you to invest your hope, your possibility, your future”, and one where people can be “certain that things will be better for your children. ”

“People are looking to us because they want our wounds to heal and we are the healers. People are looking to us because these challenges require a modern state and we are the modernisers. People are looking to us because they want us to build a new Britain and we are the builders.”