Chancellor's message to business

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves during a visit to ARU Peterborough

Transcript

00:00Well in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough we are just launching this month the

00:04Trailblazer to help people back to work. There are between 700 and 800,000 job

00:10vacancies in the economy and yet we've got too many people trapped on benefits

00:15without the support to get back to work and that's why we are helping skilled

00:19people up to give businesses access to the skills that they need. But when I

00:22became Chancellor last year there was a 22 billion pound black hole in the

00:26public finances. It did require difficult decisions including asking

00:30the wealthiest to pay more in tax and asking businesses to pay more as well

00:35but we've used that money to invest 25 billion pounds in the National Health

00:39Service. It's brought down waiting lists now for five months in a row. We've

00:44delivered in the first few months of this Labour government 2 million

00:48additional appointments. That wouldn't have been possible without the extra investment we've received.

00:52The Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor is a really important part of our plans to grow the

00:58British economy and make working people better off. It's why we are investing in

01:03new transport links, new reservoirs, new housing, new lab space and I want that

01:08benefit to be felt right along that growth corridor and I want it to be felt

01:12here in Peterborough so that more people can access good jobs paying decent wages.

01:17It's also why this month we've increased the national living wage and

01:21the national minimum wage. Three million people across our country getting a pay

01:25rise of up to £1,400 a year putting more money in the pockets of working people.