Packed King’s Speech with focus on Economic Growth
King Charles delivered his second King’s speech speech today but the first under a Labour government. He announced 40 new bills and draft bills with many focussed on economic stability and growth. The Budget Responsibility Bill which will legislate to ensure that all significant tax and spending changes are subject to win independent assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility. There is also a National Wealth Fund Bill to make transformational investments of over £7.3 billion over the next five years in infrastructure and green industry across the UK. They also introduced an Employment Rights Bill designed to make work pay – they say it’s the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation. They pledged to ban what they describe as “exploitative” zero hours contracts, end fire and rehire and introduce basic employment rights from day one.
They also want to make the minimum wage a genuine living wage. They also introduced a Pension Schemes Bill which will introduce new rules and requirements for private-sector pension schemes. It largely continues the direction of travel set out by the previous government on pension policy. The bill aims to tackle the issue of ‘lost pots’ by automatically bringing together smaller deferred pots in one place. But there was no mention of auto-enrolment reform, despite widespread industry demand for the expansion to be brought forward. A Digital Information and Smart Data Bill will allow people to use digital ID to buy age restricted products and for pre-employment checks.
The Skills `England Bill will set up an arms-length body to boost and regionalise training. There was also a Planning and Infrastructure Bill which will streamline the process for approving critical infrastructure – necessary for the housebuilding promised in Labour’s manifesto. It was the longest Monarch’s speech at the State Opening of Parliament since 1945. The Prime Minister acknowledged that rebuilding Britain will not happen overnight and urged patience with the new Labour government as the new parliamentary session begins.
