In a keynote on Friday, Mr Hunt will deliver an optimistic message, saying: “Britain’s decline was wrong in the past and it is wrong today.”
But despite the optimistic tone, the chancellor is expected to continue to resist calls from some Tory MPs for tax cuts to revive sluggish economic growth.
Instead, he will say the UK should exploit the opportunities presented by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU to boost productivity while using the proceeds of growth to support public services.
His speech comes after a day outside the Cabinet at Checkers on Thursday, where the Chancellor told ministers they must maintain their “disciplined approach” if they were to get inflation under control.
Speaking at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London, Mr Hunt will say that some of the “gloom” about the current economic outlook is based on statistics that “do not reflect the whole picture”.
“Like all G7 countries, our growth was slower in the years following the financial crisis than in the years before it,” he will say, according to advanced excerpts from his speech published by the Treasure.
“But since 2010, the UK has grown faster than France, Japan and Italy. Since the Brexit referendum, we have grown at about the same rate as Germany.
“If we look further, the case for declinism weakens further. The UK is poised to play a leading role in Europe and globally in the growth sectors that will define this century.
British Genius And British Hard Work
Mr Hunt will say what the government is proposing is a plan for “long-term prosperity based on British genius and British hard work”.
“It’s a plan necessitated, energized and made possible by Brexit that will succeed if it becomes a catalyst for the bold choices we have to make,” he will say.
“Our plan for growth is a plan built on the freedoms that Brexit provides. It is a plan to increase productivity.
“This is a plan to use the proceeds of growth to support our public services at home, to support businesses in the new low-carbon economy and to support democracy abroad.
“This is the right path for our country and the role in the world that we aspire to.”
Mr Hunt will also use his speech to announce that the government will make reforms to so-called ‘Solvency II’ – an EU directive which governs the amount of funds UK insurers are required to hold in reserve .
The Treasury pointed to an estimate from the Association of British Insurers which suggested the changes could unlock up to £100bn of private investment in UK infrastructure and clean energy – such as nuclear power – over the course of of the next decade.
Mr Hunt is facing calls from some Tory MPs to cut taxes in his budget in March to inject growth into the economy.
But at Checkers on Thursday, he and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stressed that the priority remained inflation, which was only expected to fall due to the “difficult decisions” taken to stabilize the economy following the catastrophic tax giveaway. of former Prime Minister Liz Truss.
“The Chancellor said it would be necessary to maintain this disciplined approach in order to reduce inflation, as it is the main driver of the cost of living,” according to minutes No 10 of the meeting.
This article is originally published on news-24.fr
