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"The Chancellor's initial speech lacked any detail about how she would really change anything"

ended 08. July 2024

Rachel Reeves has this morning delivered her first speech as Chancellor, addressing key manifesto pledges such as planning, affordable housing, housebuilding and energy. She also pledged to drive investment in homegrown British businesses and, in terms of the wider economy, announced the launch of a Growth Delivery Unit. Newspage asked property and financial services experts for their views, below.

11 responses from the Newspage community

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Craig Fish
Director at Lodestone Mortgages
Rachel Reeves gave us a fantastic lesson on how to say lots and nothing at the same time. The only good thing to come out of this non-committal speech that lacked substance was that she said nothing to upset the markets. Not upsetting the markets is no easy task, so overall this may actually be a good start.
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Rohit Kohli
Director at The Mortgage Stop
This was the first opportunity after a long election campaign for Labour to share its vision on how to tackle probably one of the biggest issues in the UK, namely housing. However the Chancellor continued the campaign trend of saying very little, detailing no plans and just pushing everything to “later”. I thought Labour wanted change now.
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Simon Bridgland
Director at Charwin Private Clients
The Chancellor's initial speech lacked any detail about how she would really change anything. At times, she looked slightly panicked, very quickly batting questions away without any substance in her answers. This was reminiscent of the campaign trail answers given by the now PM, namely nothing to say. Given this was 14 years in the making, I wish the Chancellor's speech had contained a little more detail to give us more confidence but it was non-existent.
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Daniel Hobbs
Managing Director at New Leaf Distribution
It's good that the pledges from the manifesto are being followed through on. We categorically need to sort out the planning system and lack of housing but we also need to do more to help tenants get onto the ladder. What we don't want is housebuilders getting a free hand to build wherever they want and then selling to investors, marginalising renters futher. But this Government seems to be alive to that fact and wary of it, which is encouraging.
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Kundan Bhaduri
Property Developer and Portfolio Landlord at The Kushman Group
Wow! This Labour administration sounds more conservative (with a small c) than the Conservatives have been in their 14 years of power. That being said, today's speech was high on rhetoric and more about showing the Tories their place after the last 14 years.

There was less (if any at all) substance in terms of how Reeves intends to build those 300,000 homes a year. How will she hold councillors to account who vote to refuse planning approval on applications in planning committees to suit their local political interests? How will this new government incentivise investors and developer to pour private money into new housing developments for a national cause? Does she intends to offer relief in terms of the various red tape and costs such as the CIL and Section 106 payments that developers face? How about squashing the 3% SDLT for any site that will be built on? Will she be bold enough to offer CGT relief for housebuilders who stick their neck out, take the risk and create new homes?
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Hannah Bashford
Director at Model Financial Solutions
I was totally underwhelmed by the first speech from our new Chancellor, but three days into the job we can’t expect fireworks. Her proposals on planning rules and housebuilding are ambitious but it’s good to see it’s being looked at. Personally I would have liked to see more focus on current housing stock without the need to keep building and further regulation for the quality of the properties being built.
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Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
In her first speech, Rachel is clearly racing towards getting Britain building. However, we cannot rely solely on large-scale developers and need to engage regional developers as well. This will help to ensure quality and release the monopolistic grip of a few. If Rachel can solve the housing problem, she will have achieved more in one policy area than the previous administration has in 14 years.
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Bob Singh
Founder at Chess Mortgages
In her maiden speech, Rachel Reeves has come out guns blazing to get “Britain building again” and has set out the blueprint for the next five years. But with likely opposition from NIMBYS and planning departments, her task is not an enviable one. Until we see the full plans and all government departments are singing from the same hymn sheet, this could be a firework that just fizzles out. Interestingly, there were no real mention of how the growth plans will be funded but I expect that to be covered in her first Budget.
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Dariusz Karpowicz
Director at Albion Financial Advice
I've seen politicians promise more housing and easier investments time and time again, yet none of it has ever materialized. Rachel Reeves' speech was full of pledges but lacked detail on how she would really change anything. There are not enough skilled tradespeople to build these houses, and several other issues need to be tackled for this plan to work.

I'd love to be proven wrong this time, but I'm not hopeful. It's politicians at the end of the day. We need more than just promises; we need actionable plans and tangible results. Let's see if this time is any different.
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Mark Hosker
Mortgage Adviser at Cyborg Finance
The new Chancellor's speech was filled with good intentions, but it lacked many details. It's early days, so remain hopeful that Labour has a secret plan that they are not yet telling us to fix planning and house building.
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Joshua Gerstler
Chartered Financial Planner at The Orchard Practice
Rachel Reeves will want to do a good job as Chancellor but only time will tell if she can do a good job. She wants to to ensure that families can get on the housing ladder. This is a great aspirational quote, but how is she going to do so? Merely building more homes does not mean families can afford to buy them. The Autumn Budget will hopefully shed a lot more light on whether Rachel Reeves is on the right track.