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LIZ TRUSS: I’LL UNLEASH OUR POTENTIAL

By LIZ TRUSS

WHEN I entered Downing Street a little over two weeks ago, I promised to unleash the potential of our United Kingdom. I promised to get us through the economic storm we face in the wake of Covid and Putin’s awful war in Ukraine and to ensure we emerge a stronger and better nation.

We are now delivering by taking tough choices and doing things differently. For years, our economy has not grown as much as it could and should. Instead, we will usher in a decade of dynamism by focusing relentlessly on economic growth.

We have a clear plan to build an ambition Britain, where everyone everywhere can realise their potential. We will make good on the promise of Brexit by seizing our chance to take the shackles off our economy and become a more enterprising, low-tax nation rich in opportunity.

I am optimistic about the future. I know we have the talent, enterprise and energy to achieve higher economic growth.

Of course, growth is about more than numbers on a spreadsheet. It is fundamentally the mark of a thriving economy.

Growth means families have more money in their pockets, more people can work in highly paid jobs and more businesses can invest in their future. It provides more money to fund our public services, like schools, the NHS and the police.

We will be unapologetic in this pursuit, as set out by my friend the Chancellor this week in his Growth Plan. Everything we do will be tested against whether it helps our economy to grow or holds it back.

As Prime Minister, I am working day and night to support people across the country. I am on the side of all those who take responsibility and do the right thing, from setting up their own businesses to working hard and aspiring to a better life for themselves and their family. Our clear plan will help them to thrive.

I know how hard it has been for small businesses. They are the lifeblood of our economy. When small businesses succeed, Britain succeeds too.

Today, I can announce we will beef up our Start-Up Loans scheme to help brilliant businesses realise their ambitions. Businesses which have been trading for up to three years can now be offered finance.

We will also be offering new ‘growth loans’ to those who have been trading for up to five years.

This is the latest step in our drive to get Britain moving.

Our pursuit of growth will be reinforced by a responsible approach to the public finances.

We will set out our approach more fully in due course, including how we plan to get our national debt down over the medium term.

We are tackling the biggest drag on growth, namely the energy crisis engineered by Putin. Our energy scheme will save the typical household £1,000 a year on their bills and roughly halve the cost of business energy bills. It will reduce peak inflation by about five per cent, helping to ensure the pound in your pocket buys as much tomorrow as it will today. We believe people should be in control of their lives and keep more of the money they earn. That is why it would not be right to allow families and businesses to be lumped with the heaviest tax burden in 70 years. People know better than any government what to do with their hardearned money. And so we have set out our clear plan to deliver £45billion of tax cuts in what will be the biggest tax-cutting package for generations.

We will benefit many millions of people across the county by reversing the rise in National Insurance, cutting the basic rate of income tax next year by 1p and abolishing the additional rates of income tax.

We have slashed Stamp Duty to help people climb the housing ladder, saving the average homebuyer £2,500 and first-time buyers up to £8,750.

This will have a considerable effect, with a third of all homes on sale in England alone now estimated to be exempt from the tax.

We will get Britain moving by cementing our status as the best place in the world to do business. We are putting our money where our mouth is in encouraging businesses to invest, create jobs and grow. We have followed through on our promise to suspend the corporation tax rise, with the result that our attractiveness to businesses will remain unbeatable.

We will get Britain building everything local communities need quicker, from roads and rail to broadband and energy infrastructure. We will do so by cutting through the red tape, much of it

Everything we do will be tested against whether it helps the economy or not

People know better than any government what to do with their hard-earned money

Cementing our status as the best place in the world to do business

inspired by Brussels, stopping people from getting spades in the ground.

We will level up the country by harnessing the power of the private sector. That is why we are in talks about creating Investment Zones across the country, from the Tees Valley to the West of England and beyond. They would offer an unprecedented set of tax incentives for business to invest, create jobs and grow.

We will maximise the potential of our City of London to benefit the wider UK economy by reforming outdated and burdensome Brussels-inspired regulations like Solvency II.

It is our duty to make Britain the most competitive and successful economy possible, and we will do whatever it takes to deliver that.

For too long, politicians have fought over how to slice up the economic pie.

We will focus instead on growing the pie to the benefit of families and businesses.

What Mail on Sunday readers have seen this week is just the start. Over the next few weeks and beyond, we will be setting out more measures to get the economy growing, deliver more opportunities for people across the country, and help hard-working families.

I won’t just talk about things, I will actually do things. The British public can trust me to take the difficult decisions, to do what I believe is right, and to deliver what I say I will.

I will get Britain moving again.

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2022-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

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