Healey pledges fiscal discipline alongside jobs and growth

Chancellor John Healey used his first Labour conference speech in the role on September 28 to set out a growth and jobs agenda while pledging that his first Budget would maintain fiscal discipline. He said day-to-day government spending should be matched by revenue by the end of the decade, leaving the Budget’s detailed measures unclear ahead of its scheduled October 28 presentation. Healey announced a new local apprenticeship service led by mayors and aimed at helping young people into training and work. Some accounts of the announcement put funding at £100 million, but the government’s allocation and the scheme’s precise terms were not set out in the available details. Healey linked the initiative to a broader effort to address youth worklessness and rising welfare costs, saying welfare reform and more job opportunities were needed to help young people move into employment. He also said Rolls-Royce would invest £300 million in factories in Glasgow, Rotherham, Derby and Bristol. The investment was presented as part of a push to expand industrial activity and employment in Britain.