Faced with a flat-lining economy, will Reeves' plan for growth make us better off?

ITV News’ Political Editor Robert Peston gives his analysis on Rachel Reeves’s commitment to Net Zero

Before the election, the prime minister and chancellor insisted their number one mission was ending 15 years of economic stagnation, that they were going for growth.It hasn’t worked out. The mildly growing economy they inherited in July has reverted to flat-lining type, partly because Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner have heaped additional costs on businesses, with their £25bn employer national insurance increase and a raft of new employment restrictions.They said they wanted the engine of the economy to be turbocharged and then filled it with syrup.Today though the Rachel Reeves who for months did a passingly decent impression of Eeyore, well if only Eeyore wrote budgets, now claims to be the most cheerful person in BritainShe has at last discovered the elixir of – if not eternal growth – but something that will give the UK a bit of renewed bounce.

Quackery or will we be quids in?A bit of bothThe backing for a third runway is largely performativeIt’s about telling international investors, in a world that has been reset by Trump, that the UK is open for investment and it won’t be hidebound by climate change targets from making big economic bets.But given that a formal development plan won’t even be agreed till the end of the parliament, the chances of climate warriors like Ed Miliband feeling they have to resign their jobs in protest are slim to none.

And I personally am not betting on anyone alive today ever touching down on that third runway.

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By contrast, turning Oxford and Cambridge into a supercluster of high tech businesses, new housing and train links is both practical and should make all of us richer within a few short years – though if you live in the North East it’s reasonable to ask whether this government has given on up on closing the UK’s grotesque regional inequalities.One more thing. The PM said this morning that taking a scythe to regulations that stunt growth is his equivalent of Thatcher’s deregulation of finance and Blair’s embrace of globalisation.It’s a nice idea. But honestly it’s really not the economic revolution he would dearly love.

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