PRESS RELEASE : King’s Speech to unlock growth and “take the brakes off Britain” [July 2024]

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 17 July 2024.

Improving living standards for working people through economic growth will be the central focus of new laws set to be unveiled by His Majesty The King today [Wednesday 17 July].

Improving living standards for working people through economic growth will be the central focus of new laws set to be unveiled by His Majesty The King today [Wednesday 17 July].

In the first State Opening of Parliament under this government, The King’s Speech is expected to unveil over 35 bills and draft bills which will support delivery of the government’s first steps and missions to rebuild Britain.

The package of bills will focus on growing the economy through better transport, more jobs and turbocharging building of houses and infrastructure – helping to make every part of the country better off.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

Now is the time to take the brakes off Britain. For too long people have been held back, their paths determined by where they came from – not their talents and hard work.

I am determined to create wealth for people up and down the country. It is the only way our country can progress, and my government is focussed on supporting that aspiration.

Today’s new laws will take back control and lay the foundations of real change that this country is crying out for, creating wealth in every community and making people better off – supporting their ambitions, hopes and dreams.

Transport

New legislation will be introduced to create a simplified rail system by bringing rail services into public ownership once their contracts expire or if operators fail to deliver on their commitments. This approach will avoid the burden falling on taxpayers to cough up for compensation to operators for taking services into public ownership.

Transferring operations to the public sector will save the taxpayer millions of pounds currently paid out in fees to private operators each year. It will end the fragmentation of our railways, establishing a more efficient and reliable rail service for passengers – helping to get people to work on time and boosting productivity.

The government will also introduce legislation to establish a new public body, Great British Railways (GBR) which will be focused on improving services and creating better value for money for passengers.

With Great British Railways, the fares and ticketing system will see simplified fares, discounts, and ticket types. Once established, the new body will also ensure that ticketing innovations like automatic compensation, digital pay-as-you-go and digital season ticketing are rolled out across the whole network.

The King’s Speech is also expected to feature a Better Buses Bill to deliver the government’s manifesto commitment to reform the bus system by delivering new powers for local leaders to franchise local bus services and to lift the restriction on new publicly owned bus operators.

This will help bring an end to the postcode lottery of bus services and will give local communities throughout England the power to take back control of their bus services. It will mean local leaders can decide to introduce better bus networks, at pace, which reflect the needs of the local communities that rely on them.

Building

Getting Britain to build more housing and infrastructure, including through planning reform, will also be central to the Government’s plans to strengthen economic growth.

The Bill will speed up and streamline the planning process to build more homes of all tenures and accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects.

By enabling democratic engagement with how, not if, homes and infrastructure are built – the major brakes on the planning system will be addressed to support sustainable growth.

Empowering local communities

As part of the government’s plans to empower local leaders to deliver change for their communities, the King’s Speech is also expected to unveil the English Devolution Bill. This will deliver the Government’s manifesto commitment to transfer power into local communities and recognising the vital role local leaders play in supporting growth by establishing local growth plans that bring economic benefit to communities and households across the country.

The speech will build on the first fortnight of the government’s mission of national renewal.

From the launch of a National Wealth Fund to strengthen UK investment, to a new Mission Control tasked with turbocharging the UK to clean power by 2030, to opening the recruitment of a new Border Security Command, and the Deputy Prime Minister’s pledge to kickstart a new devolution revolution to transfer more powers out of Westminster and into the hands of local people – the Government is hitting the ground running and wasting no time in its work to change the country.