£150m for northern scale-ups as Budget questions go unanswered

Chancellor promises growth—but small firms still await the goods

£150m for northern scale-ups as Budget questions go unanswered

Chancellor John Healey has used his first major speech to promise a new era of growth, investment and devolved power. There was £150 million for high-growth northern firms and a pledge to reduce regulatory costs, but Britain’s millions of small and microbusinesses must wait until the Budget to discover whether the Government will lower their costs—or ask them to pay even more.

CHANCELLOR’S SPEECH

The Chancellor used his first major speech to reiterate that growth is the mission, and fiscal discipline is the method.

He said the UK economy has “huge latent potential” but has been held back by decades of centralisation, under‑investment and slow decision‑making. His plan is a fundamental reset of how the UK grows, shifting power out of Whitehall, speeding up infrastructure projects, and backing innovation. His speech was heavy on direction of travel and missing any detail.

Signals

• Growth everywhere, not just in London and the South East.

• Fiscal discipline: borrowing must fall to keep inflation and debt interest under control.

• Local power: councils and mayors will get more control over investment and industrial strategy.

• Faster infrastructure: judicial review reforms to stop projects being delayed for years.

• More investment: public financial institutions will be refocused on long‑term regional growth

• Innovation push: dedicated funds for frontier tech, AI, and high‑growth firms.

The Chancellor said the Autumn Budget will be a growth budget, and we can expect measures aimed at investment, productivity and jobs. He refused to talk about tax rises and talked about the negative impact of speculation. However much he’d like us not to speculate, vacuums are filled by speculation, and this speech was just words in a vacuum.

Hopes

Small and micro businesses will want faster infrastructure approvals that reduce the delays that hurt local economies. They will hope that a stronger innovation ecosystem, means more grants, partnerships and regional support programmes. They will want to see more local investment and more local investment decisions, closer to where businesses operate. They will hope for a clearer national growth strategy with less fragmentation and more longer-term planning so everyone knows where they stand.

The Budget

The Chancellor is signalling a shift from centralised, slow, low‑investment UK to a devolved, innovation‑driven, investment‑focused Britain. The Autumn Budget will be the real test, but today’s speech sets the direction: growth, discipline, devolution, and innovation. We now await the detail.