“Labour is back in business” – Reeves’ speech to Labour’s business conference

Below is the full text of the speech delivered by Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves at Labour’s business conference this morning.

Thank you, Ian. And thanks to HSBC for sponsoring today’s conference. It’s great to be here with so many familiar faces, many of whom I have had the pleasure of working with since becoming Shadow Chancellor. It is that spirit of partnership which will guide our approach in government. As Keir has set out, that means a new business model for Britain to deliver the leadership and the growth this country needs so that we can realise the promise of a greener, a fairer, and a more prosperous Britain.

These are challenging economic times. But I know the spirit of enterprise, of creativity, and of endeavour are as present in Britain today as they ever have been. It has been a huge privilege to see that first hand. From Oxford Nanopore, leading work on DNA and RNA sequencing; to Tred, in Leeds, which has launched the UK’s first green debit card; to Moonhub in East London, which I visited yesterday, where they are pioneering interactive virtual reality training.

But we are at a post-Brexit crossroads. We can go down the road of managed decline, falling behind our competitors. Or we can seize upon bold thinking to propel us forward, to shape Britain’s future outside the EU while improving our trading relationships – including with our closest neighbours – applying ourselves with creativity, determination and common sense so that we can lead the pack in the industries of the future.

In that spirit, I want to say a huge thank you to Jim O’Neill, Alex Depledge, Julie Devonshire and Tom Adeyoola, and the many others who brought their insight to Labour’s start-up review. The report we are publishing today – Start-Up, Scale-Up – provides crucial insights towards achieving one of the guiding ambitions of the next Labour government. To make Britain the best place to start, and to grow, a business. As Chancellor, I will do everything I can to make that ambition a reality. And this report sends a powerful message. That Labour is back in business. Let me tell you why I believe this is so important.

Innovation is a great British strength. It is in the fabric of our history and it endures today. Fast-growing firms already contribute £1tn to our economy and employ 3.2 million people. But I have heard time and again from business about the stubborn obstacles preventing them from scaling up. About issues with access to finance, especially patient capital, and the difficulty of turning brilliant ideas in our universities into commercial reality.

Think, then, what we can achieve if we remove those obstacles. The prize will be felt not only in new opportunities for those with the vision, the talent and the desire to seize them, but in wealth that will flow into communities across our country, in pride in those successful new businesses, and in a more prosperous, more dynamic Britain.

We have already begun to set out the steps to reach that goal. The next Labour government will abolish business rates, which place an unfair burden on small and high street businesses, and replace them with a fair system fit for the 21st century. And we will push power out of Westminster, providing our local and regional leaders with the tools to support the creation of new economic clusters so our digital, medical, environmental and creative industries can thrive in every part of Britain.

But we can and must go further. If the UK had the same level of venture capital investment as a proportion of GDP as does the United States, that would amount to an additional £16bn of venture capital investment – nearly double our current level – bringing with it more innovation, more opportunity, and higher economic growth. That is why today, we welcome this radical plan to make Britain the high-growth, homegrown start-up hub of the world. This panel was tasked with giving us a road map to get there, asking the difficult questions and presenting solutions.

Take our pension funds. Defined benefit funds in Britain have almost £3tn worth of assets under management. But right now, it is more often Canadian pension savers who benefit from start-ups here in Britain than savers at home. If we could take advantage of that wealth, unlocking even a proportion of those investments, then we could drive greater investment in homegrown businesses and greater returns to British pension savers. France’s Tibi scheme has secured more than €18bn of investment for new and growing businesses by using the convening power of government to bring institutional investors together with venture capital.

The question is – why are pension-savers and businesses not feeling these benefits here in Britain? And so the next Labour government will commit ourselves to this task. This report contains ideas about much more: about the ambition and autonomy of the British Business Bank and access to patient capital; building on, and widening access to, our existing system of tax reliefs for entrepreneurs; supporting our leading universities and researchers to help translate their work into new businesses and economic growth; and how to build on Britain’s existing strengths – in life sciences, fintech, and more.

Britain can achieve so much more. In innovation, in trade, and in growth. We have the ability, but we need government and business working together to make the most of that potential, to spread opportunity far and wide across the country, and to allow everyone with the talent, the effort and the ideas to see their vision through to reality.

That is the task ahead: to build the Britain that I know we can be. An enterprising, dynamic country able to rise to the challenges posed by a changing world. The work to make this a reality will begin from day one of the next Labour government. Thank you.