Without growth, nothing else can be achieved

A week into this new Government and there is momentum behind our mandate to fix the foundations of the economy.

We have started as we mean to go on: with a laser-like focus on growth.

Time and again, the previous Conservative government ducked and dived the important but difficult decisions needed to get our economy growing.

Had the UK economy grown at the average rate of OECD economies since 2010, it would be £143.3 billion larger. That would be worth £5,053 for every household in the country, bringing in an additional £58 billion in tax revenues to fund public services without raising a single tax by a single penny.

That’s why we didn’t hesitate in our first week. We started fixing our broken planning system, with a plan for 1.5  million more homes and scrapping the ban on onshore wind – because the answer to planning applications can’t always be “no” if we want to make sure people can buy a house and be able to afford their energy bills.

We launched the National Wealth Fund to bring together the key institutions that will help unlock private investment in new industries, getting a return for the taxpayer and driving growth in all parts of the country.

In the week ahead, the King’s Speech will underscore these commitments.

Front and centre will be our commitment to fixing the foundations of our economy with a return to stability. Because stability is the precondition of growth.

A stable economy attracts investment. It can help keep inflation, mortgages and taxes low. That is why we refuse to play fast and loose with public finances.

We saw this play out to devastating effect with the last Conservative government’s economic experiment, which added hundreds of pounds to mortgages and put family finances at risk.

It is also why, unlike our Conservative predecessors, we will never gag the independent Office for Budget Responsibility for political convenience.

Every commitment this Labour government makes will be based on sound money and economic stability.

Through our fiscal lock, which we will say more about this week, we will empower the independent forecaster so that every fiscal event making significant changes to taxation is independently assessed.

These changes will lay the foundations for future-proofing our country. They will relight the fire of economic growth for generations to come.

We cannot undo years of damage in a week. It will take time and there are difficult decisions ahead.

But we have wasted no time in taking the first steps needed to fix the foundations of our country, returning stability to the economy for the benefit of British business and the British people.

Rt Hon Darren Jones MP is Chief Secretary to the Treasury since July 5