The chancellor’s growth mission is missing in action

The chancellor’s growth mission is missing in action | Nils Pratley

Businesses grumble about lack of ambition and urgency as Rachel Reeves continues to shy away from meaningful tax reform

Where was the applause for the budget from the business world? Well, there was the banking sector, but it was reportedly under strong encouragement from the Treasury to engage in a round of corporate cheerleading after being spared higher levies. Nor should one get carried away by JP Morgan’s coordinated announcement of a new £3bn office in Canary Wharf. Yes, the commitment shows some level of long-term confidence in the UK, but large international banks do not make property decisions on the basis of what they heard one afternoon.

In the non-banking business world, the broad day-after reaction to the budget can be summarised as a resigned shrug coupled with amazement that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, offered so few pro-growth measures even as the Office for Budget Responsibility set out two depressing forecasts. First, that the average growth rate for the economy from 2026 to 2029 will be only 1.5%, rather than the 1.8% expected in March. Second, real-terms annual growth in disposable incomes will be tiny.

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The car made pedestrians second-class citizens. Don’t let driverless vehicles push us off the road altogether | Adam Tranter

If we want autonomous tech to succeed it must be designed to share space with us, rather than forcing us to adapt to it Adam Tranter is the co-host of the Streets Ahead podcast. He was formerly West Midlands cycling and walking commissioner under mayor Andy Street This week, the UK government announced its plans to fast-track driverless vehicle trials in the UK. One of the key companies involved noted that London presents a significant challenge: “It has seven times more jaywalkers than San Francisco.” There’s more than one problem with that statement – and it encapsulates so much of what’s already going wrong in the adoption of driverless cars. For a start, “jaywalking” isn’t even a thing in the UK. We thankfully have no such concept or offence. Unlike in many US cities, pedestrians here are free to cross the road wherever they see fit. And thank goodness for that. Adam Tranter is the co-host of the Streets Ahead podcast. He was formerly West Midlands cycling and walking co...

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