03/10/2016 - Live Morning Session Conservative Party Conference

Good morning, my name is Andrew Sharp. I am delighted to be

introducing this first session on an economy which works for everyone.

Our economy was not working. Six years on, the deficit is down by

two-thirds as a share of GDP. We are one of the fastest growing

economies in the developed world. Our economy is recovering. As the

Prime Minister said when she set out her economic vision for in July, we

need to make sure everyone can share in the country's wealth. There are

too many people who are only just getting by. We need our economy to

deliver for everyone in every part of Britain.

We will hear from the people who will be instrumental in doing so. We

will hear on transport, housing and of course from the Chancellor.

First, we will hear from the Secretary of State for business,

energy and industrial strategy. With 900,000 more businesses than in

2010, the British spirit of enterprise has been the engine of

our recovery. They couldn't have a bigger champion than this man. It

gives me pleasure to welcome Greg Clark.

Ladies and gentlemen and friends, it is fantastic to be here. Can I say a

big thank you to Andrew on our behaves. Those of us in Kent will

remember the vigour and vefr that he put into the general election

campaign as r regional chairman that saw us win every single seat in

Kent. As Andrew was saying then, ladies

and gentlemen, over the last six years we have been able to report

that we have created jobs, we have attracted investment and achieved

growth. But of course we needed to. We now that every time there's been

a Labour Government they have run out of other people's money.

Every time there's been a Labour Government, it's fall on the the

Conservatives to clean up their mess. And every time, just like this

time, we can proudly say we have done our duty.

But the truth of course is that it isn't Government that creates jobs.

When we say we, what we actually mean is you. The entrepreneurs, the

small firms, the start-ups, the inventors, British businesses and

the people who work in them. You are the heroes of Britain's economic

revival. It is you who we salute. APPLAUSE

We have seen a great revival of enterprise in this country. During

the last six years almost three million more businesses created,

more than any other time since the Victorian era. The taxes that our

businesses pay contribute ?140 billion a year to pay for the public

services that we use. They've attracted more overseas investment

than any other western economy apart from the United States. We are a

nation built on business, powered by business and whose future depends on

business. APPLAUSE

Now, ladies and gentlemen growing up in Teeside in the shadows of the

great cooling towers of ICI, I know the importance of big industry.

But small business was in my blood too. My dad was a milkman, running

the family business that my granddad started after the war, with a horse

and cart. I saw at first-hand what being in business really means.

Above all, the sheer hard work. My dad was no exception. Up with the

lark seven days a week. If you are in business you are never off duty.

As a youngster, I understood the effort. But what I didn't always see

so clearly was the other side of business, the quick thinking, the

inventiveness, the sheer entrepreneurship.

Until I turned 17, that was. And I asked for driving lessons as a

birthday present. Great idea, said my dad. I'll teach you.

But there was a catch. The vehicle that I was caught in turned tout be

a milk float. The lessons took place at 5. 30am.

Amongst the various manoeuvres on the curriculum, the one I had to

practise most was leaping off to deliver milk. It was then I

discovered my dad was truly enterprising. If you want to get

ahead you have to think ahead. So too does the country. That's why

Theresa May is determined that this country should have a proper

industrial strategy. I am delighted that she's given me such a

powerhouse of a team to support me in this work. We have them today -

with Chris Pincher and our CBSs, will you welcome them to our convens

today? APPLAUSE

Friends, I am thrilled to announce that the man who turned around both

ASDA and ITV and who did such great work for our party, Archie Nearman

will join me as the non-executive director of this business

department. It is obvious from what I have said that if Governments

don't create jobs they certainly don't create businesses or

industries either. But can Governments make a difference? Well,

just ask yourself this - would it matter to British business if, God

forbid, Jeremy Corbyn was Prime Minister of this country? Last week,

in Liverpool, a city built on enterprise and trade, Mr Corbyn set

out his vision. A plan to tax enterprise, to nationalise our

industries, to bank roll failure and stamp out success. When today's

Labour Party sneer at the job creators, turn their back on the

aspirations of ordinary working people and march off to the

political extremes, we in this party must make this one simple pledge -

we will never allow the Corbyn-esteres to do to Britain what

they have done to the Labour Party. The only momentum we want to see in

our country is innovation of job creation, regeneration across the

land. Enterprise, not socialism is what lifts people out of poverty and

this party will never forget it. So, having the right Government w

the right policies makes the world of a difference and planning how we

can create the best possible conditions for British business in

the long-term is not optional, it is essential.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, having said that it is businesses that

create jobs, I want to introduce you to some of the people who are doing

just that to talk about our industrial strategy. Grant Adams is

the chief executive of a West Midlands engineering company which

supplies components to the automotive industry and now employs

over 2,000 people here. Catherine Bennett, all people born and raised

in the West mid-mands lands. She is Vice-President of Airbus, who has

had the excitement of seeing her company invest and contribute to the

Rosetta probe which has completed the mission just last Friday and Sir

Bater, who runs a successful accountancy business who helps small

start ups here in the West Midlands. Please welcome all three of them up

to the stage. Great, well Catherine, starting with

you, you had that spectacular space mission which must have galvanised

the whole workforce, but tell me for a successful business like yours,

looking to industrial strategy, what is the one thing that working with

you we need to prioritise and put to the forefront? Thanks. The first

thing I would say is the power strategy, which we have got, we've

got to work on it. Really, it is really important that the strategy

helps us have a competitive advantage over the other nations,

especially in light of Brexit. The other thing I would say is

partnership, so not only working with your ministry and other

partners in the industry, but also in the regions as well, which I know

is something you are very passionate about. And really you talk about

Rosetta, it is all about innovation. The colleagues of mine and our

engineers based in Stevenage were responsible for what my colleagues

tell me is the what heart of the Rosetta, they did the design, the

prop polltion and the thermal materials that helped that ?1.1

billion project succeed. It was amazing to see the coverage it got

last Friday. Let's think how Tim Peake galvanised people to think

about innovation. Of course we are leading and your company are leading

on the next rover to Mars. It is British-led. So we can be sure it

will drive on the left-hand side of the road when it is in Mars. I am

sure it will! We will have British technology powering that. Grant, you

are in the technology business. You have been tremendously successful as

part of the supply chain for the motor industry here in the West

Midlands. As you say, 2,000 people. Tell us a bit about what you think

is most important to us as we work together on the industrial strategy?

Today I am getting over the bombshell about Villa Park. That is

the first thing I should say. For us, I mean, I don't think we

have seen volumes in the automative industry since 1972 in the UK. We

are building more vehicles now than 40 years ago. That means, for a

business that's so closely linked for us into the automative industry,

it is about sustaining that growth. It is key about people. We started

learning academy and we have taken 250 people through that. So, every

weak we have got 20 people that are coming through that academy. It is

so important to get that next level of workforce trained and skilled.

And we are getting people from different industries, so they

haven't got maybe the engineering skills. It is important that we

train the people. So you have established that. You were telling

me if you were not here this morning every week you start your week at

the academy talking to the people being trained. The first thing I say

to people is we cannot train you for attitude. What we can train you for

is for skills and that is I think the most important thing in the

message to get across to people. I think me

You have a practise helping SMEs and startups and you helped on the local

enterprise projects. One of the great things we have seen in the

last few years is how with the Local Enterprise Partnerships across the

country you have businesses and civic leaders of the area working

together, tell us how it has been in Birmingham. I should start by

welcoming the whole of conference to Birmingham. I hope you get a chance

to see the real development that's happening in this region outside the

conference centre. If not today, hopefully you can come back and see

here. I mean, you will have seen, here. I mean, you will have seen,

for example, just over the road, the cranes building the new retail bank

for HSBC, bringing over 1800 jobs. Some of you may have seen the new

development at New Street, which is a fantastic welcome to millions of

visitors to this region. Some of you may have endured some of the

roadworks. They are a short-term pain for a long-term gain. Coupled

with that, we've had the fastest creation of job growth in this

region over the last six years. Nearly 100,000 jobs. A large amount

of investment and a trade surplus to China. All that come down to two

things in my opinion, the first is communication with Government. I

know you have been a great supporter, Greg, and we have managed

to make sure that business is at the heart of the agenda. I really

welcomed what you said in your speech, putting businesses and

entrepreneur at the heart of the agenda. It is business that

delivers. So I really welcome that you recognise that.

The second part of this is really leadership. We were very lucky to

have had Andy Shreet, the former chair, having stood for the mayoral

team. He's a very humble guy. I know Andy is a very humble guy and

understated to. Have taken the company from where it was in 2010

and bring it to where it is now in 2016 the resources that we have got,

the jobs he's created, brath together the

universities, eight Metropolitan communities. The. Chambers

We were at dinner and we were talking to some real experts and how

we could supercharge the growth in the coming period. He didn't know

that I overheard him. He said, all I want to do is serve and improve the

quality of the life of the people representing. In my opinion, there

is no more noble sentiment stands out from our leader. We all agree

with that. Your support for him to lead this fantastic city, as you

say, the spirit that you pick up when walking around Birmingham is

fantastic to feel. Thanks for what you are doing as part of supporting

Andy on that. Stay with us. I will say a few more words and then have

some other contributions. Can you thank our guests?

Three people from the West Midlands doing great things for our economy.

And I think it justifies what they say that if you are to have an

industrial strategy, you need to build on your strengths. Building on

your strengths is the cornerstone of a good strategy and we have no

shortage of that. We are a scientific powerhouse. Only America

has no Nobel prizewinners and more top universities than we do. On your

way home tonight, if you look into the night sky, you can marvel that a

quarter of all the satellites launched into orbit are made not in

Houston or Cape Canaveral, but in Stevenage. That is by a firm we've

talked about here. Our professional services, how creative industries,

our technologists, they all set the global gold standard and our global

leadership in combating climate change, which we will maintain and

take forward, now presents us with a massive opportunity to enjoy

industrial success. I'm pleased to see in the audience, the MD of

Siemens, who's made such an -- fantastic investment in Hollande the

Humber, creating many jobs because of our leadership in these new

technologies. Welcome to the conference. We need to build on our

strengths. But of course, building on those strengths and indeed

magnifying them is not the same as protecting incumbency. My view is

that we must act constantly to create the conditions for us to be

open to new competitors and indeed to new industries that may not exist

anywhere today but which will shape our lives in the future. The

benefits of innovation must flow to consumers, in better product,

improved services and cheaper prices. The best businesses value

long-term relationships with their most loyal customers. The worst ones

abuse them. Of course, it's not in the most competitive industries

where people who are loyal to their supplier fleeced. But where

competition is most sluggish and incumbents most dominant. An economy

which works for everyone must ensure that those with market power don't

use them against consumers, especially those vulnerable to

exploitation. That is a principle that we will apply in our industrial

strategy. And this is true of workers. We know that outside the

family in education, work is the most important way in which people

can develop their talents and spread their wings. Thriving businesses

create opportunity and from Shaftesbury's factory Acts, to

William Hague's discolouration act, conservatives have always understood

that decent treatment of people at work is not at the expense of

industrial success. It's a foundation of it. That is why the

Prime Minister and I have launched a review, an immediate review, of the

employment practice in the modern economy, so we can keep pace with

developments as they take place. We know our labour market works for the

vast majority of people but we wanted to work for everyone. As we

were talking about with the panel, in this city of Josef Chamberlain,

who, as mayor, created the conditions for industrial success

that made Birmingham renowned as the city of a thousand trades, we must

recognise the importance of place in industrial strategy. For far too

long, governments have peered out from Whitehall and imposed policies

that treated every place as if they were identical. Well, they are not.

The needs of Cornwall are different from those of Birmingham and our

strategy must reflect that. We couldn't be more fortunate in having

a man who embodies the combination of brilliant business success and

passionate devotion to this city and region standing to be mayor as Andy

Street. I know we will all give him our huge full hearted support. The

best government is the one that sense is the world is changing and

the country has to change, too. In 1979, Mrs Thatcher and the new

government knew that Britain needed to change to meet the modern world.

She described 1979 as a year that was not just part of history but

which made history. I believe that in the years to come, we will look

back on 2016 as just such a time. And the challenge facing us is this.

For all the excellence and entrepreneurial brilliance have

described, for all the assets, skills and reputation we have as a

nation, for all of the astonishing economic progress we've made in this

country, it is still too uneven. Britain can boast the richest area

in northern Europe, Central London. But we also have nine of the ten

poorest. We conservatives know that that is not good enough. We have

some of the most capable people, some of the best trained people on

the planet but still too many people who haven't had the education or the

training that they need to get a good quality job. We have new

infrastructure like Crossrail about to open, you Street station recently

opened. We have digital networks that leave too many people poorly

connected. We have low carbon energy systems that lead the world but also

a failure of successive governments to replace our ageing power

stations. We have a worldwide reputation for fair deals but also

examples of behaviour that trashes the good name of business. This is

no time to lower our sites or our standards. This country will never

win a race to the bottom. Looking ahead, it is clear that the only

viable path is in the opposite direction. I believe it is time for

this country to have an upgrade. An upgrade in our infrastructure, an

upgrade in the resilience and cleanness of our energy supplies, an

upgrade in our education and training, and upgrade in the

development and regeneration of our towns and cities. Upwards to a

country that invests, upwards to a country of opportunity and

enterprise, upwards to an economy that works for everyone. Thank you

very much indeed, ladies and gentlemen. APPLAUSE.

Thank you, Greg. Housing is vital. We need more homes so that people

from all backgrounds have a chance of getting onto the housing ladder.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce Sajid Javad, the excellent

new Communities Secretary, who has a fantastic record of delivering and

he will tell us more. Thank you. Today, I want to talk to you about

housing. It's a huge issue for our country and one that our new Prime

Minister is determined to do something about. As your new

Communities Secretary, it will be my number one priority. But before I do

talk about that, I want to start by paying tribute to many of you in

this room. Our excellent Conservative councillors and local

leaders. A week working at DC argy, I'm more aware than ever of the huge

amount of work that you do. You are off the unsung heroes. You give up

your time, your sleep, your shoe leather, sometimes it may even feel

like you're giving up your sanity. And you do it, not because you seek

riches or rewards. It's because you care deeply about your community.

You want to make it a better place. Well, I want you to know that I

recognise the hard work that you do and I appreciate it enormously.

Thank you. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my

brilliant ministerial team, Gavin Barwell, Marcus Jones, Andrew Percy,

Nick Bourne and our superb PPS, Rebecca Harris and Rebecca Powell.

Thank you for the work you all do. Thank you. Two months ago, Theresa

May gave her first speech as Prime Minister on the steps of ten Downing

St. She made it clear that our priority is Conservatives must be to

ensure that Britain is a country that works not just for the

privileged few, but for everyone of us. She is absolutely right. If we

are truly to achieve this, then building homes is critical. The

first house I remember living in was 107 East Street, Bedminster,

Bristol. I call it a house. It was actually just a small flat above my

parent's shop. All seven of us, me, my mum, my dad, four brothers, all

squeezed into two bedrooms. I also recall a while back, soon after I

became member of Parliament, in a select committee, someone who was

giving evidence said that by modern standards, I was actually homeless.

Anyway, my point is this. Having a safe, secure home, is so important.

It's not just a place to rest your head. It's a place to live your

life. It's a place you could call home. Now, over the last six years,

we've made a lot of progress. My predecessors, Eric pickles and Greg

Clark, have done a huge amount of work. Massive investment in housing,

a wholesale reform of the planning process, new legislation, right to

buy for housing association tenants and so much more. The results are

therefore all of us see. Since 2010, annual housing starts have gone up

by 30%. Almost 300,000 affordable homes had been provided in England.

And more than 330,000 households have benefited from schemes like

help to buy and right to buy. And we've doubled the housing budget to

more than ?20 billion over the next five years. That money is allowing

us to embark upon the largest government backed house-building

programme since the 1970s. So I would like to pay tribute to my

predecessors for all the hard work they did. But let's be honest with

ourselves. There is still a long, long way to go. Far too many young

people can not get a foot on the housing ladder. Many are being

forced to live back with mum and dad as rents soar faster than wages.

Here, in Birmingham, in 1997, the average house price was just under

three times average income. Last year, it was more than five times.

1.5 million households contain at least one adult who says he or she

would love to buy or rent their own home but they simply cannot afford

to do so. Harold Macmillan, he put it best more than 90 years ago,

housing is not a question of conservatism or socialism, he said,

it's a question of humanity. Tackling this housing shortfall

isn't about political expediency. It is a moral duty. And it is one that

falls upon all of us, not just in parliament, but on businesses, in

local government and in local communities.

So my message today is clear, it is time to get building. The big

developers must release their stranglehold on supply. It is time

to stop sitting on lane banks, the home buyers must come first. Lnl

280,000 -- almost 280,000 planning permissions were issued. I want to

see every one of those converted into homes as soon as possible.

Local leaders must be prepared to make the difficult calls, even if

sometimes they are unpopular. And so must MPs and council lors. Of course

there are sometimes valid reasons to oppose some local planning

applications. If they are in the wrong place, if there is not enough

infrastructure or if they are just plain ugly.

But all of us, we all have a duty to think about the long-term

consequences of every decision that we make.

As elected representatives, we are here to take the right decisions not

the easy ones. Ultimately, we have a responsibility

to build more houses. A responsibility not just to our

constituents, but to the next generation.

It is for that reason that we are going to take some unprecedented

steps to open up the market. First today, we are opening up a

massive ?3 billion home builder's fund. This major package will help

us build more than 225,000 more homes and will create thousands of

jobs up and down the country. APPLAUSE

It will also helps us get more SMEs building, it will encourage custom

builders and allow developers to build the infrastructure needed to

support new housing. Now second, we will pilot a new initiative.

Accelerated construction on public land.

We will take Government owned land and we will partner with contractors

and investors to speed up house building. We will create new supply

chains using offsite construction. We will encourage new models of

building to make houses that people want more cheaply and at pace. These

measures will allow us to get started on some 15,000 new homes by

2021. We will get more homes built more

quickly. So, we will bring forward a package of messages to encourage

urban regeneration and to build on brownfield land. We will want to

radically increase brownfield development and bring life back to

abandoned sites. That means delivering high-quality housing for

families, bringing new energy to our high streets I means abandoned

shopping centres being transformed. Increasing the density of housing

around stations to build homes that people want to life in. These are

just three initiatives. They are just the beginning.

We will publish a housing White Paper later this year, with further

significant measures. All helping us towards our ambition for a million

new homes by 2020. APPLAUSE This is also action here

and now. I think it shows that we, together, that we mean business. You

see, we are the party that is willing to take difficult decisions,

make the hard calls in order to build a better Britain for everyone.

If we choose popularity over progress today, we are betraying the

voters of tomorrow. But we need to remember it is not

simply houses that we're just building, it is homes. It is places

for people to live in, to grow, to raise a family. We're not just

putting roofs over heads. We're creating communities and that's why

it is so important that as we build these communities we don't just

impose our will from Westminster. That's why I am proud to be

continuing with our ambition devolution agenda. Having elected

mayors will help us put power the hands of local people, exactly where

it belongs. There can be no better candidate for the west Midlands than

our very own Andy Street. APPLAUSE

Congratulations, Andy on your nomination. We're backing you every

step of the way. Now Andy is the perfect candidate

because he understands the local area. He understands the local

economy and local communities. Labour, on the other hand, don't

have a clue what communities are all about and they don't support home

ownership and they certainly are not capable of getting the houses we

need built. Let's just take a look at their

track record. Under Labour house building fell to levels not seen

since the 1920s. Under Labour, in one 12-month

period, just 75,000 homes were started.

Under Labour, average house prices almost doubled compared to average

wages. You see, the truth is, under Labour,

targets were missed, waiting lists grew longer and more and more homes

stood empty. And they have the audacity to lecture us on housing

policy. APPLAUSE

But there is a difference between them and us. They want a society

that's dependant on the state rather than a state that serves society.

That's why they've always opposed right to buy. Of course it is very

easy to dismiss home ownership as a bore gooses a perration, especially

from the comfort of your multimillion pound Islington town

house. Emily Thornbury - remember her? The champagne socialist Shadow

Foreign Secretary, who cringes when she sees the English English flag.

She already owns at least three houses worth a total of ?4 million.

And yet she wants to stop working people from owning the homes that

they want to grow up in, raise families in, want to grow old in.

The hypocrisy is quite something. APPLAUSE

You have to remember Labour are the party of dependants. They always

have been and they always will be. So I say to all Conservatives, let's

get Britain building. Let's build the houses that the people of

Britain deserve today. Let's build the homes that our children and our

grandchildren will need tomorrow. Let's build on the legacy of

McMillan and Thatcher, under our Prime Minister Theresa May, let's

build the houses we need to ensure that Britain is a country that works

for everyone. APPLAUSE

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, transport is essential, we need faster trains,

better roads and more investment in future technologies. No in our

Transport Secretary we have a man who is a commuter himself, I know

this is true because we sometimes share the same train. It gives me

great pleasure to introduce Chris Grayling.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is great to be introduced by

Andrew. I recruited him to the party. He became my association

chairman: He is now a senior figure and making a real contribution to

everything we do. It is great to be introduced by him today. Ten years

ago I was Shadow Transport Secretary in David Cameron's first Shadow

Cabinet. And you know, as you do, as a Shadow Cabinet member, or

minister, I travelled around the country helping MPs and candidates,

hearing about the things they believed needed to be done to sort

out the transport system in their areas.

As you guess - new by passes, new stations, wider roads, new trains.

Well, it is ten years later, I still travelled around the country helping

colleagues, visiting constituencies and do you know what, I see schemes

that were desperately needed and have been built by Conservatives in

Government. Ladies and gentlemen, we are delivering for Britain.

APPLAUSE Now, of course, we all now our

transport system is not perfect. But it is a whole lot better than it

was under Labour. And we should never let them forget that.

It has been obvious to me, ever since I have been out and about in

my new job. One example, remember when we took office in 2010, our

biggest train manufacturing plant in Derby was on its knees. Losing

orders toment co-petters abroad and had serious doubts about its future.

Back in July, just after I took over, the transport department, I

visited that same plant to announce a ?1 billion order for new trains

for passengers in East Anglia. And also to see the state-of-the-art

trains they are building for Europe's biggest infrastructure

project, Crossrail. They are fantastic, enormous and will make a

real difference to our capital. Then in August I visited the team

building the new Manchester relief road. Easing congestion for local

communities with a project that Labour never got around to building

in their 13 years in office. One of my first actions as Secretary of

State was to approve the expansion of London City Airport, opening up

more strategic routes into the heart of our capital. Ladies and

gentlemen, Conservatives are already delivering better transport that

works for everyone in Britain and there is more to come.

APPLAUSE We all know that one of the people

responsible for those improvements is my predecessor. I arrived in a

happy, well run department which has flourished under his leadership. It

is a great honour to follow him in that job. But actually it is great

to have him as our new party chairman.

APPLAUSE That has paid tribute to any new team, John Hayes, Tariq, our

whip, Jackie and our two great PPSs. I am very lucky to have such a

hard-working team. And hasn't it been a momentous year

for our politics? I am enormously proud to have been part of a team

that won the arguments that Britain has a better and brighter future

outside the European Union. I am also really proud to have been

part of the team that helped elect our new leader and Prime Minister,

Theresa May. I know she and our team world delivered that better and

brighter future and a country that works for everyone. And, boy, what a

contrast with the other side. I watched them all of this summit in

chaos. They've been at war with themselves for month why we have

been getting on with the job. That is the difference between the Labour

and Conservative Party. And do you know what, I've always wanted the

job of Transport Secretary because it's a job where the government

really can and does deliver for everyone. It can make a real

difference to people's lives and it does every single day. When you

leave your home, whether you are going on the train, you are in the

car, on a bike, even just walking down the street, if things work,

it's great and believe me, if they don't, I get all the e-mails. I want

to make sure we really do have a transport system that works for

everyone and when I arrived at my new department, my first instruction

to the team there was that everything we do, everything we do,

has to put the passenger or motorist first. If it doesn't help the

travelling public, if it doesn't help that business shifting goods

around the country, then we really shouldn't be doing it. And actually,

I'm really proud of the things we are already doing. We are opening

new roads and improving the ones we've already got. We are making

roads safer, bringing stiffer penalties in for those caught using

their mobile phones by driving. We are organising our trains with more

space, more seats, with the latest high-tech passenger information. We

are opening new stations and railway lines, like the station just a few

miles down the road from here, part of the vital link that opens up the

network for people and businesses. In our big cities, we are spending

more money on tram systems and state of the art cleaner buses and good

news about the buses, they are built in Britain, too. Beyond road and

rail, we are doing more to support cycling, more to support community

transport all of the country. But of course, I know there is still an

awful lot to do. We are running to keep up. I've got more and more

people who want to travel and there are too many jams on our roads. That

is why we are starting the biggest modernisation programme of our

strategic road system for a generation.

And I know our trains are crowded. I travel on them every day. It's often

tough to get a seat. Although, I have to say, as Jeremy Corbyn would

have you believe, on a mid-morning service to Newcastle. But no, Mr

Corbyn, your great myth, the trains were not shinier, they were not

better and they were fewer seats in the days of British rail. Just think

of those so-called golden days of British rail. Just one example,

Corby in the East Midlands. It lost its train service. The local station

was closed. That was the reality of British rail for Corby. Reality of

today's railway for Corby is different. There is so much demand,

we are planning an extra track to meet their needs. That's the

difference between today's roadways and what happened then. But we do

need to do more. I travel into Waterloo each day. The trains are

packed. 20 years ago, around 110,000 people a day used that station.

Today, it is nearly 250,000. So what do we do? We are providing longer

platforms and longer trains which will help ease that congestion. It's

not just in London. There will be new trains with tens of thousands of

new seats, more seats, in Manchester, Leeds and in Birmingham.

I want to make sure we have a transport system that works for

everyone. But not everyone agrees with me. Bringing in these changes

has been no easy ride. A small hard-core of trade union leaders

have been misleading their members and calling them out on strike. They

don't want the modernisation of our network. We know the staff who work

on our Railways know what's best for passengers but ladies and gentlemen,

the minority of militant unionists do not care and do not want a good

deal for our passengers. They have that one, simple, ideological goal,

they want to renationalise our railways. It is no surprise that

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party backs the call of its union paymasters.

But we all know, we are conservatives, we've seen the

changes that have happened in the last 30 years. We know that it's an

expensive, reckless idea and it will not fix the problems we face today

or deliver the modernisation passengers want. As conservatives,

we want to move forwards and not backwards.

One of the things people down the road also know is we need better

services to places like Milton Keynes, Northampton and Coventry.

Everyone in this room would agree we want to get more freight off the

roads and onto our railways. How do we do that? It is fairly easy. We

create more space in our railways. That might sound conjugated but no.

How do we do that? We build a new railway line that thinks our major

cities so we've got more space for freight trains and Camino trains on

our other busiest trine 's -- lines. That is the reason we need to press

ahead with HS2. Our whole country will benefit. A commuter will

benefit from the extra space it frees up on their lines. The

motorist who never uses a train will have a quicker journey as we get

more freight off the roads. If we are going to build a new railway

line, why on earth the wouldn't we build a new state-of-the-art one for

the coming century? What we are all about is a new 21st-century

Elizabethan era for our railways. We're not about going back to the

Victorian one. And of course, our focus on the future should be

mirrored right across the transport network which is why today I am

pleased to announce another ?12 million for Midlands connect, to

keep up their important work here in the West Midlands, planning its

transport needs until 2020. We are nationally delivering efficient for

the future of our overall system, but that has to sit alongside local

solutions to local problems. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a transport

revolution on the way. It's going to change all of our lives. Technology

is going to change the way we all travel. I had recently my first

experience of a driverless car and believe me, it's a very unusual

experience! But do you know what, it's all of our futures. And what a

difference it is going to make. I think particularly, what I think is

exciting about it is the difference it's going to make to the lives of

the elderly or the disabled. I think it can transform their lives almost

more than anyone else in our society. But this driverless

technology is going to mean better use of our roads, more reliable

journeys, safer motoring and I want is to be at the forefront of that.

Our modern transport Bill due early next year will help pave the way so

we can build and use that new technology here, so we can be

pathfinders in its future development. I want to say to the

motor manufacturers of the world, come to the UK, develop your

technology here. We have the most skilled, most knowledgeable

workforce in the world. Britain is open for business and this

government will support you. Now, I suspect if you might have

spotted that there is another part of our transport future that is

right at the top of my in tray. We have a big decision to take about

airport capacity. If we are going to have an economy that works for

everyone, and if we are going to take advantage of all the

opportunities that Brexit will bring us, we need great links around the

world. By building a new runway in the south-east, we will send a

signal to the world that Britain is open for business. And it won't just

benefit the south-east. It's not just about the south-east of

England. It's about our whole country. Regional airports will

benefit from any expansion, too. It's one of the great pluses of

doing this. Ladies and gentlemen, this decision, this plan is good for

the whole British economy. But none of this on the transport front can

happen without people. The men and women to drive our trains, the

people who provide information on our roads and who can to the rescue

when things go wrong, for people who fly us around the world, the crews

on the ship saw the teams in our ports who keep our trade and the

economy moving and also keep UK waters safe. And then there are

those invisible people, seemingly invisible teams, who clean the

trains that night, refuel the planes, who resurface our roads in

the small hours. The world's leading engineers delivering

state-of-the-art projects like Crossrail, British skills making a

real difference. I tell you, in the wake of Brexit, we are going to make

your opportunities by taking those skills and winning business around

the world off the back of what they are doing. But there is one group of

people I particularly want to mention today, people visiting me in

a conference today. Young apprentices, working on Crossrail,

building trains for bombard EA, maintaining the coach network for

National Express and helping repair elevated motorways. It's a great job

and a great career working in transport. What you do impacts on

millions of lives across our country. Can I ask you to say to all

young people helping to build all of our futures, can we all just say one

very big thank you? -- Bombardier. I want to send a message out to all

young people thinking about their future careers, young people male

and female, what are they going to be doing in years to come? Well,

actually, in the future, those apprentices today will be able to

look back and say to their children I build that station or that road or

that train. I helped change my country. Ladies and gentlemen,

transport is a great area to working and we need more of our young people

to come and build their futures in it. So, ladies and gentlemen, I want

a transport system that is fit for the future and which works for

everyone. I want us to always work to put the traveller first. I want

us to build the skills that secures that strong future and I want to use

those skills around the world to build opportunity for Britain. As

conservatives, in government, we are already making a difference but

there is so much potential ahead of us. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a

great country and together, we will make sure that every single one of

us has a great future. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will

shortly hear from the Chancellor, who will be responsible for steering

the economy as we leave the EU, as well as showing the world that

Britain is open for business. But I am not introducing him. Amanda

Millings is. She delivered one of the results when she won Cannock

Chase. What I am doing is introducing a short film. Enjoy.

When did I know I was a Conservative, I guess it was

something that was a dawning revelation from the age of 12

onwards. The more I read, the more I realised I was a Conservative. The

advice is do something first. Come to us later. Once you...

Conference, as a new West Midlands MP, welcome to Birmingham.

APPLAUSE I was born and brought up in Burton

upon Trent. Here in the West Midlands. And last May, it was an

absolute honour and privilege to be elected as the new Member of

Parliament for Cannock Chase in the county where I grew up.

APPLAUSE Just walk around Birmingham and you

can't help but notice the changes that have happened over the last six

years. I have also seen first-hand how my constituency has transformed,

adapting to a changing industrial landscape. Once where there were

mines there are new homes, industrial estates and business

parks. Homes to a wide range of small and

medium-sized businesses. My background is in business and now I

make it my business to visit, support and stand up for local

businesses. What never seizes to amaze me is what is made in Cannock

Chase. Conference, please indulge me, let me talk about Cannock Chase

for just a minute. These are just some of the things

that we make; Digbit, as the name suggest, manufacture buckets and

attachments for diggers. Tailor Made Systems, make the equipment to clean

runway lights, used at airports across the globe. I recently visited

SMB Pressings, who make drums used by percussion sections of orchestras

all around the world. So what have the Conservatives in

Government achieved in the last six years? We have created an economic

environment where businesses such as these can succeed and flourish.

Creating new jobs and new opportunities for all.

Since 2010, unemployment in Cannock Chase has fallen by around 70%.

And more jobs have been created day by day.

Conference, last week alone, I am delighted to announce that Amazon

have created 4,500 new jobs at their fulfilment centre and the green

light has been given to the new Milgreen designer outlet village in

can knock. It will create over 1,000 new jobs.

These examples are evidence that there's confidence in our economy.

And confidence in what this Conservative Government has

achieved. My constituency of Cannock Chase has

truly benefitted from a Conservative Government and a Conservative

Chancellor of the Exchequer. So, I have a business back ground. I am

pro-business, I am pro-enterprise, but not at any cost.

The banking collapse affected us all.

What was I doing then? I was speaking up for people who'd lost

their trust in the banks. Now, as a member of the Select Committee that

has held inquiries on the working practises at Sports Direct and the

tragic collapse of BHS, I have seen the consequences of irresponsible

business practises and these inquiries have held people to

account. We need a strong Business

Secretarior to ensure a strong economy.

And in my case, a buoyant local economy in Cannock Chase.

Conference, I am not the first, and I won't be the last this week to say

that we need to build an economy that works for everyone.

APPLAUSE And so, ladies and gentlemen, I was

thrilled to be asked to introduce to you today the Chancellor, who will

build our economy, that works for everyone, where we maintain economic

confidence and will steer our great country through challenging times.

He has been the Secretary of State for Transport. He's been Secretary

of State for defence. And until recently, the Foreign Secretary. And

now we need this experience in number 11. Conference, let me

introduce to you the Chancellor of the Exchequer, The Right Honourable

Phillip Hammnond, MP. Thank you Amanda. It is a pleasure

to be introduced by one of the stars of the 2015 intake.

Amanda, you held off a ferocious pincher movement in Cannock Chase by

Labour from one side and Ukip the other. Your result was one of the

highlights oh that night last May and we congratulate you on a

fantastic achievement. APPLAUSE

It is great to be back here in Birmingham and a privilege to

address this conference as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

And I don't think I'm giving away any state secrets in admitting that

I just might have hoped to have been a Treasury Minister a little bit

earlier in my political career. In fact, having been Shadow Chief

Secretary for three years, up until the 2010 general election, I rather

suspect that that infamous note by Liam Bryn, you remember the one,

dear Chief Secretary, I am afraid there is no money. I rather suspect

that note was intended to me, but it went to David Laws, who published it

and now I read is trying to get it back. It became what maybe the

shortest political suicide note in history.

Liam, your message to your successor was an admission of Labour's abject

failure. APPLAUSE Zillion

My dedes is sore did not leave me a note. If he had, here is what it

would have said, "Dear Chancellor, employment is up. Wages are rising.

The deficit is down and income tax has been cut for tens of millions of

people. That is the Conservative record, that is the difference a

Conservative leader makes. APPLAUSE

Anyway I got to the Treasury in the end. David Gawk as Chief Secretary,

Jane Ellison, Jason Kirby, all of them ably supported by our Commons

whip and PPSs. So, please give them a big round of applause.

APPLAUSE Actually I even went down to the

Bank of England last week to check on the gold reserves - what is left

of them. Because you remember Gordon Brown sold half of them off at the

bottom of the market, losing British taxpayers a staggering ?7 billion in

the process. Another example of Labour's failure. We last met in

this hall two years ago, on the eve of the fight of our political lives.

A fight between two very different visions of the future.

Our Conservative vision of a Britain moving forward, with a strong

economy, supporting strong public services and Labour's offer of a

Britain going back to the bad old days of tax, spend and waste.

And it is a credit to your hard work and the good sense of the British

people that we won that fight. And we should not forget the debt

that this party owes to the man who led us out of opposition and into

collision and then on to form the first Conservative Government in 18

years, our former leader and Prime Minister, David Cameron.

APPLAUSE But today, my friends, we meet on

the eve of a different challenge. No less daunting, no less crucial to

the future of our country. That vote on 23rd June, the first of

its kind anywhere in Europe, was a defining moment, not just of this

Parliament, but of this generation. The moment when the British people

decided to change direction and map out a new path for our country's

future. Whichever side of the argument we

were on, we shouldn't forget this, only one mainstream political party

was prepared to give the British people their say.

Only one party delivered that referendum and only one party

unhesitatingly accepted the result - this great party, the Conservative

Party. That result in June gave clear voice

to a desire by the British people for an end to political union and

the restoration of control. Control - that key word. Control

over the rules and regulations that govern their lives. Control over who

can Louvre and work in their country.

And control over how their money is spent.

And I can reassure the British people of this - that message has

been received loud and clear. No ifs, no buts, no second referendums.

We are leaving the European Union. APPLAUSE

But it is equally clear to me that the British people did not vote on

June the 23rd to become poorer or less secure, so our task is clear.

Repatriate our sovereignty, control our borders and seize the

opportunities that the wider world has to offer but do all of this

while protecting our economy, our jobs and our living standards. Now,

the message may be simple but I can assure you the process will be

complex. Successful negotiation with the EU 27 will demand patients,

experience, meticulous planning and steely resolution. And I know of no

one better equipped to guide us through these negotiations fell our

brilliant new Prime Minister, Theresa May.

We should approach these negotiations with self-confidence.

Our economy is the fifth largest in the world. Our nation is built upon

a history of global trade. Our people are responsible for some of

the most significant inventions and discoveries of history. So no one

should be in any doubt that we have the skills, the ingenuity and the

determination to make a success of Brexit. Starting from a position of

strength and thanks in no small part of the actions of my predecessor, we

enter these negotiations with an economy that is fundamentally

robust. It is easy to forget six years on the scale of the legacy of

Labour's great recession that we inherited in 2010. Turmoil in the

markets, a banking system still reeling from the crisis, a deficit

of more than 10% of GDP, the highest in our peacetime history. An economy

on the brink. And it was the decisions that George Osborne Turk

in those early days that pulled us back from the precipice and set us

on a course to recovery. The tough early choices... APPLAUSE. Those

tough early choices and the doggedness in sticking with them

delivered that intangible but indispensable dichotomy,

credibility. Credibility in the markets which secured record low

borrowing costs and credibility with business, securing the investment

that supported our recovery. And the results are clear for all of us to

see. 2.7 million people more in work today under a Conservative

government than in 2010 under Labour. Did we hear that achievement

being lauded in Liverpool last week? Of course not. Because Corbin's

Labour Party has abandoned the agenda of working people. Deserting

the middle ground of British politics in favour of the socialist

ideology of the Metropolitan left-wing elite. Leaving us, the

Conservatives, as the true party of British working people.

Of course, for much of his time as Chancellor, George Osborne faced Ed

balls across the dispatch box. Remember Ed balls? Yeah, I know you

remember him from Saturday night. I'm asking if you remember him from

his more minor role as Shadow Chancellor. -- Balls. By the way,

you know Ed wasn't their first choice for strictly. There are going

to ask Jeremy Corbyn to do it but someone told him that he had two

left feet. I watched Ed on Saturday night and I

don't want to sound like Craig Revel Horwood but I think is Charleston is

probably better than his economic analysis. Because he told us back

then that our policies would push the economy into recession. But he

was wrong. Since 2010, Britain has grown faster than any other economy

in the G7. He said we would never replace lost public-sector jobs with

new private-sector jobs we did. Not one for one but 741. And that is not

all. We got our deficit down by nearly two thirds. We cut the

welfare bill. We've kept mortgage rates low, protecting millions of

homeowners during difficult times. We've cut income tax for 30 million

people and taken 4 million low-paid workers out of income tax

altogether. I say not bad for an economy that looked out for the

count only took it over in 2010 and a record of which this party can be

justly proud. But we cannot rest on our laurels.

We must look to the future, to the economic challenges ahead. Let's

start with the immediate challenge. The markets have calmed since the

referendum vote. Many of the recent date have been better than expected.

That is the clearest demonstration of the underlying strength of our

economy. But there is no room for complacency. Many businesses which

trade with the EU are uncertain about what lies ahead. They have

understandable questions about the process of the negotiations, about

the deal that will be done, about the changes they will have to make

to adapt to the post Brexit world and about what it will all mean for

their employees, their company, their business model. And I

understand their concerns. Business, after all, hates uncertainty. But

let me repeat the Pledge of the Prime Minister yesterday. As we

negotiate our exit from the EU, and our future relationship with it,

this government will fight for the best possible deal for British

business and British workers, the best possible access to European

markets for our manufacturing and services industries and the best

possible freedoms for our entrepreneurs and our global

exporters. Ensuring Britain after Brexit will remain one of the best

places in the world for a business to invest, to innovate and to grow.

The independent Bank of England successfully cut interest rates to

restore confidence in the wake of the vote. But as the economy

responds over the coming months, fiscal policy may also have a role

to play, so let me be clear, throughout the negotiating process,

we are ready to take whatever steps are necessary to protect this

economy from turbulence and when the process is over, we are ready to

provide support to British businesses as they adjust to life

outside the EU. Because Brexit does mean Brexit and we are going to make

a success of it. And in the meantime, I can offer some

additional certainty to British business and other organisations

bidding to receive EU funding while we are still a member. I have

already guaranteed the funding for projects signed prior to this year's

Autumn Statement. Today, I can go further. The Treasury will offer a

guarantee to bidders whose projects meet UK priorities and value for

money criteria, that if they secure multiyear EU funding before we exit,

we will guarantee those payments after Britain has left the EU,

protecting British jobs and businesses after Brexit. APPLAUSE.

As Conservatives, we know, of course, that no one owes us a

living, that the country has to live within its means. If fundamental

part of maintaining our global competitiveness is getting our

public finances back in order. We should, of course, be proud of our

achievements in fiscal consolidation but the work that we began in 2010

is not finished. The deficit remains unsustainable and the decision to

leave the EU has introduced new fiscal uncertainty. Last year, the

government borrowed ?1 in every ?10 we spent. And piling up debt for our

children and our grandchildren is not only unsustainable, it's unfair

and more, it is downright unconservative. The British people

elected us on a promise to restore fiscal discipline and that is

exactly what we are going to do. But we will do it in a pragmatic way, in

a way that reflects the new circumstances we face. The fiscal

policies that George Osborne set out with the right ones for that time

but when times change, we must change with them. So we will no

longer target a surplus at the end of this Parliament. But make no

mistake, the task of fiscal consolidation must continue. And it

must happen within the context of a clear, credit call fiscal framework

that will control day-to-day public expenditure, deliver value for money

and get Britain back living within our means. At the Autumn Statement

in November, I will set out our plan to deliver long-term fiscal

sustainability while responding to the consequences of short-term

uncertainty and recognising the need for investment to build an economy

that works for everyone. A new plan for the new circumstances Britain

faces. A Conservative government demonstrating the flexibility of

common sense and the pragmatism that has made our party the most

successful political party in British history.

Contrast this balanced responsible reproach -- approach, with the

shambles of labour in Liverpool last week. In denial about their record

in office, deluded about the state of the public finances today. Not

once did Jeremy Corbyn apologise for the mess that Labour left behind.

Other country, his Shadow secretary says their mistake was not to have

spent more. If you think their past record is bad, let's look at their

plans for Britain's future. Jeremy Corbyn's big idea is to spend an

extra ?500 million. I just hope he remembers when he goes to bed at

night to water the magic money tree. Now, look, we can speculate as to

how Labour will pay for a spending splurge on the scale but

fortunately, we don't have too because we have the answer from

Labour's last Shadow Chancellor, Chris Leslie. This is what he said

last week about how Labour would fund Jeremy Corbyn's plan. He would

have two double income tax. He would have two double national insurers.

He would have to double council tax. And you'd have two double VAT as

well. So there we have it, from the mouth of one of their own, Labour

condemned as totally unfit to govern this country.

With nothing to offer the hard-working people of Britain and

always, it would be the poorest and most vulnerable who would pay the

biggest price. So, my friends, we in this party have a great and solemn

responsibility because we alone carry the burden of ensuring that

Labour can never again wrecked the British economy. Conservative

commitment is to build a country and an economy that works for everyone,

to raise our living standards and grow our national wealth, not just

for today but for future generations, too. We know how to do

that. We have proved it time and time again. Cleaning up Labour's

mess. We will do it by making the British economy the most outward

looking, most dynamic, most competitive, high wage, low tax

economy in the world. We do it by making sure that after our EU exit,

we continued to attract the brightest and best, highest skilled

and most dynamic entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers and managers

from around the world, building a strong and vibrant economy as the

bedrock of our strong and vibrant society. A Conservative vision of

the future of Britain. And I tell you this, it is 1 million miles away

from the Lala land Labour was describing in Liverpool last week.

To deliver that economy requires long-term sustainable growth and

long-term sustainable growth requires us to raise our national

productivity. Look, before you switch off, I know that productivity

doesn't necessarily set political pulses racing, but bear with me

while I convince you it should how about this - you probably know our

national productivity is lower than that of the US and Germany.

Perhaps you even feel somewhat resigned to that fact. But did you

know it is lower than France and Italy too? Had you made the

connection about what that means in the real world? Because what it

means is that millions of British workers are working longer hours for

lower pay than their counterparts in Europe and the US. That has to

change if we're going to build an economy which works for everyone. If

we raise our productivity by just 1%, 1% every year, within a

secretary kid we would add ?250 billion to the size of our economy.

That's 9,000 for every household in Britain.

So productivity should set political pulses raising. It is a decade's old

problem swept under the carpet for too long.

But under this Government, we are going to put it in the spotlight,

right at the forefront of our policy agenda and at the heart of our

industrial strategy. We know where to start, our

productivity performance in this country is grossly uneven. Still too

reliant on a few key sectors. Still too focussed on London and the south

east. The good news is we know how to do productivity. Parts of London

have the highest productivity in Europe T bad news is that the

productivity gap between our capital, second, third and fourth

cities is greater than any other major economy in world and closing

that gap will be key to Britain's future outside the EU. That is why

we're doing regional devolution deals and why tackling those

regional differences will be one of the key drivers for the industrial

strategy that Greg Clark is developing now. And then there's the

skills challenge. We've made huge progress over the last six years.

How many people in this room ten years ago would have believed that

in every year since 2014 maths would be the most popular A level subject

in English schools, but it was. What a tribute that is to

Conservative education reforms. APPLAUSE

But despite that progress, there is still a huge gap between our skills

base and that of our key competitors. It is holding people

back from achieving their full potential and it is holding our

nation back in the global race. And there's more. Our stock of

public infrastructure, our roads, railways, flood defences, languishes

near the bottom of the develop league table after decades of

underinvestment and our businesses too are not investing enough. All of

this must change to build an economy that works for everyone.

We need to close that gap with careful targeted public investment

in high value infrastructure and encouragement of more private

investment in British enterprises. If we see growth distributed more

evenly across the regions and sectors of our economy and more

fairly between the generations, there's another big challenge that

needs to be tackled. The unaffordability of housing.

Because, despite the action we've taken, fewer and fewer young people

are able to afford to get their foot on the first rung of the housing

ladder and buy their own home. Quite simply, we're not building

enough new homes. This is a long-term challenge, but

there are short-term measures we can take and the package that has been

announced earlier, for ?3 billion home builder's fund. ?2 billion for

new investment on public land is a clear demonstration of this

Government's determination to tackle this challenge using all the tools

at our disposal. Because making housing more

affordable will be a vital part of building a country that works for

everyone. And this Government is determined

that the dream of homeownership should be for the many, not for the

few. Ensuring that we have world-class I

from structure is vital to maintaining our competitiveness. It

is a very long-term agenda, one that can be and often has been, knocked

off course by short-term political considerations.

That's why we announced the national infrastructure commission, to design

independently the nation's long-term infrastructure needs, to prioritise

and plan, to test value for money, to ensure that every penny spent on

infrastructure is properly targeted to deliver maximum benefit and today

I recommit to putting the commission at the very heart of our plans to

renew and expand Britain's infrastructure, making sure that it

is long-term economics, not short-term politics, that drive

Britain's vital infrastructure investment.

Part of Britain's productivity transformation will come of course

from innovation. But the new disruptive technologies

which are right now making their way from university labs and company R

and D facilities into early stage production offer Britain a much

bigger prize than incremental productivity improvements. Because

at the cutting edge of many of these new technologies, the UK is becoming

a world leader once again. Not just in the science, but in the

application of it. And in the innovation that follows.

Over the last few years, unnoticed by most of us, entrepreneurs and

scientists from home and abroad have been turning Britain into a hub of

tech innovation. And global businesses have followed,

hungry for the inventions and innovations they are generating.

Developing technologies that will change fundamentally the way we work

and the way that we live. Driverless cars, artificial intelligence, 3D

printing, virtual reality, advanced robotics. I had no idea until a few

weeks ago just how much I don't know and I had even less idea how much I

still wouldn't be able to understand even once some clever people had

explained it to me. This is our future and our children's future. A

new world which would have sounded like science fiction a few years ago

but is now a reality taking shape in laboratoriries, incubators across

Britain. There is a once in a generation opportunity for Britain

to cement its role as a leader in tech innovation.

And my ambition is clear - I want to see what is invented here, developed

here. I want to see what is developed here, produced here.

I want to see jobs. I want to see profits. And yes, I want to see tax

receives, here in Britain. APPLAUSE

I want to see the fruit of British genous being harvested here in

Britain as we move into a fourth Industrial Revolution, creating

jobs, wealth and success to future-proof our economy post

Brexit. We are well placed to do it. More competitive than ever. Up to

seventh place in the world league table last year, from 10th the year

before. We have world leading universities and research

institutes. A trusted legal system. The English language - our secret

and unfair advantage. And vibrant markets. At 20%, we have

one of the world's most competitive corporation tax rates. As it falls

to 17% by the end of this Parliament, it will be more

attractive still. Of course this explosion of

creativity and innovation I have talked about has not happened solely

or mainly because of Government policy. But it could easily be

snuffed out by the wrong Government policy.

So, we must carefully maintain the conditions that have brought this

activity to Britain in the first place.

Including the ability to attract the brightest and the best to work here

in our high tech industries. And where we see that there are

Government interventions that work, we should be prepared to make them.

So, today I can announce another ?220 million of support to tech

innovation, spread across two initiatives. ?100 million to extend

the biomedical catalyst fund, which takes revolutionary science from the

lab and transformed it into deliverable health care

interventions and a further ?120 million to nurture the tech transfer

offices that put universities and entrepreneurs together to get that

science out of the lab and into the factory. That is a Conservative

Government investing in Britain's future.

APPLAUSE I have made my argument that we will not overcome Britain's

productivity challenge unless we tackle the serious inequalities in

performance between cities and regions. That is an economic

analysis. This is about politics too. Because one of the key messages

of the referendum campaign was that large parts of our country feel left

behind. They see the country getting richer, but they don't feel part of

that success. A dangerous divide is opening up

between those who belief they have a stake in the economy and those who

do not. And it is one of the central

missions of this Government to tackle that divide.

To see the benefits of economic growth shared more evenly across the

regions and across the generations. A key part of this agenda is

harnessing the economic power of our cities. The northern powerhouse

project takes a visionary approach, linking the great cities of the

north into a coherent economic entity. An interconnected region

that raises productivity and delivers growth by making it easier

and cheaper for firms and individuals to move goods, people

and ideas. And I want to pledge to you today

that the Treasury, under my leadership, will continue to drive

the northern powerhouse project, working in partnership with local

leaders to see it deliver its potential for people in the north.

But I also want to tell you that our ambition is not limited to the

northern powerhouse. We want to create the conditions for success in

the north, the south and everywhere in between. There's nowhere more

rightly to benefit from a similar approach than the Midlands.

The Midlands engine, with its hub here in Birmingham.

Powers 11.7 million lives. Generates ?220 billion for our economy.

Produces 18% of UK goods exports and more than one-fifth of our total

manufacturing output. In this great region, there are 320,000 more

people in work than there were in 2010.

But both productivity and economic growth have lagged behind the UK

average. So we have developed our long-term

economic plan for the Midlands. And it is already delivering. But we can

and we will do more. We're working the West Midlands

combined authority on a second devolution deal to include more

powers on transport, criminal justice, data, planning and skills.

And with Andy Street, our fantastic mayoral candidate for the West

Midlands now in place, a great future is within the region's grasp.

At the very least I can promise you this, this region will never be

knowingly undersold. APPLAUSE

The northern powerhouse, the Midlands engine - two great projects

that can be emulated across Britain. Indeed, I suspect the limiting

factor may only be our ability to think up snappy titles for new

regional projects. Be assured we have past a tipping point in

devolution in this country, a decisive and irreversible shift in

the economic and mittal powerball lance and Britain's economy will be

the bigger and the better for it. Our party trusted the people but the

nation's future in a referendum and now they trust our party to deliver

on their decision. We will not let them down. We are going to leave the

European Union, to repatriate our laws, to assert the supremacy of our

courts, to control our borders. But we are not going to turn our backs

on the nations of Europe. Let us resolve that as we leave their

union, we will remain the best of neighbours, the closest of trade

associates, the strongest of security partners. But our economic

future must not be defined by Brexit alone. As we tread that path to

becoming an independent, sovereign country once again, and forge a new

and exciting role for our nation in the world, let us resolve to tackle

the challenges we face at home, with renewed vigour, dealing with a

deficit, raising our productivity, rebalancing our economy, rebuilding

our infrastructure. And ensuring that everyone in every part of our

country can contribute to and benefit from the growth that

follows. Paying our way in the world, standing tall amongst our

competitors, attracting the brightest and the burst to deliver

the vibrant, successful economy that will mean when future generations

look back on our decision in 2016, they will see not the end of an era

but the beginning of a new age. Not a country turning inward but a

nation reaching out, decisively, confidently, to grasp new

opportunities, a bigger, better, greater Britain. Truly a country

that works for everyone. Thank you. APPLAUSE Full