23rd Jul 2026 09:11
(Alliance News) - John Healey has vowed to lift "pessimism" about the UK economy as chancellor as he pledged his support for businesses that have "felt really squeezed".
The new head of the Treasury said companies had faced many of the same pressures as households as he promised to curb "the cost of doing business".
Healey – who replaced Rachel Reeves in the job – was addressing business leaders after Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced that business rates will be cut by 20% for pubs, clubs and live music venues across England from April next year.
Speaking at a central London event on Thursday, Healey said: "As chancellor, I speak for the whole economy, and businesses of all sizes in all sectors are so critical to the good growth we seek to secure in this country, for delivering the investment, the innovation, the reindustrialisation that our economy needs, lifting the pessimism that has eroded not just the public's confidence but has eroded our own prosperity.
"And my message to British businesses is quite simple: to British businesses, to British innovators, to British investors: I will back you as your chancellor, and I'll back you in financial services, in technology, in retail, in industry, in all parts of the economy.
"And I know things haven't been easy. We talk a lot in government about the cost of living, and that's right. People have been facing increasing pressures. They've been feeling that lack of a breathing space in their life.
"But so have all of you. And I'm just as concerned about the cost of business as I am about the cost of living.
"Tax, energy, supply-chain costs, labour – I know that businesses large and small have felt really squeezed."
Healey set out his five priorities as chancellor: fiscal discipline and ensuring "we meet our fiscal rules with a buffer against uncertainty"; growth in every postcode; backing Britain by "buying British as a government at all levels", driving wealth creation by raising the levels of investment, innovation, confidence, and of profit in British-based businesses; curbing the cost of living and the cost of doing business.
Describing businesses as "the engine of growth and confidence in this country," he said he wanted to strengthen the Treasury's relationship with them by "stepping up our support for and work with business".
Healey was a surprise appointment by Burnham on Monday, nearly six weeks after he quit as Keir Starmer's defence secretary in a row over levels of funding for the military, precipitating Starmer's resignation.
By Sophie Wingate, Press Association Deputy Political Editor
Press Association: News
source: PA
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