Healey Vows to Get Britain Working Again, Offers Few Budget Clues

Finance minister John Healey pledged to "get Britain working again" on Monday, promising to create jobs while reducing borrowing and adhering to the government's fiscal rules. Speaking at the Labour Party's annual conference in Liverpool, Healey said Britain was entering a "new age of industrialisation" driven by technology and defence, as the government seeks to revive sluggish economic growth.

However, he also appeared to caution delegates that the government's room for manoeuvre was limited by high debt-servicing costs and strained public finances. That seemed to set the tone for his October 28 budget, which officials have signalled will prioritise reassuring bond markets, with long-term borrowing costs at their highest levels since the 1990s.

Healey focused on the roughly one million young people not in work in Britain, saying expanding jobs and apprenticeships would be central to the government's plans. The push forms part of Prime Minister Andy Burnham's effort to curb a welfare bill that reached a record £324 billion ($429 billion) in real terms in the last financial year, equivalent to 11% of economic output.

Healey also backed investment in defence and technology as drivers of growth, arguing economic progress should be measured not just in statistics but in families being able to afford holidays and businesses hiring more workers. But he offered few clues about next month's budget beyond a firm commitment to fiscal discipline, including a pledge to balance day-to-day spending with revenue by the end of the decade.

Instead, his first conference speech as finance minister appeared aimed as much at lifting party morale as setting out policy, after Labour's recent improvement in opinion polls following Burnham's replacement of Keir Starmer as prime minister in July. One business executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the speech as a "holding statement" and said it was "really disappointing."