Labour has now 'done what it takes' to get public finances back on a firm footing, says Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves speaks at the Great Northern Conference.

Transcript

00:00So what you're saying is effectively, unless there's some, you know, once-in-a-generation event like Covid,

00:06the businesses here today can go home confident that national insurance contributions for them will not go up over time?

00:13Well, no Chancellor's going to write five years' worth of budgets in the first five months of being Chancellor

00:18because you don't know what's going to happen in the future.

00:21But I can tell you with certainty and with confidence that we have now done what it takes to get public finances back

00:29on a firm footing. As I said before, in the spring when we settle, spending will be doing so for day-to-day spending

00:37for the next three years and for capital spending for the next four years.

00:41So public services will have to live within the envelope that we have set.

00:45We're not going to be coming back to top up that envelope in the spring through more tax increases or further borrowing.

00:53So we've done what we need to do to put those public finances back on a path that is sustainable,

01:01which means not only can you be confident that I'll never have to do a budget like this again,

01:06but I hope you can also be confident that the volatility that we had over the last few years,

01:12whether that is on financial markets or indeed in your borrowing costs or the costs of doing business because of inflation,

01:19we shouldn't ever be in a position like that again because of the measures that this government took in the budget.