Labour Chancellor John Healey pledges industrial investment and apprenticeship funding while promising fiscal discipline
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In his first conference speech, Chancellor John Healey announced £6 billion for shipbuilding, a £300 million Rolls-Royce investment and £100 million for mayor-led apprenticeships, while stressing adherence to existing fiscal rules ahead of his budget.
Chancellor John Healey used his opening address at the Labour Party conference to outline the government’s economic priorities before his first budget. He said the administration will allocate £6 billion in new contracts for British shipyards and announced that Rolls-Royce will invest £300 million in factories in Derby, Bristol, Glasgow and Rotherham, describing the move as part of a “new age of industrialisation”.
Healey emphasized that the fiscal resources available in the 1990s are no longer present and pledged to follow the existing fiscal rules, stating that the government and Prime Minister Andy Burnham are “in lockstep” on maintaining fiscal discipline.
“The best thing we can offer a young person isn’t a benefit payment, it’s a first job with training and a wage,” Healey said, adding that mayors will receive £100 million to fund a new apprenticeship scheme.
He also announced the revival of the Union Learning Fund, which previously provided training for 180,000 workers annually before being discontinued by the previous government. The fund will include a focus on artificial intelligence to help workers “harness AI, not be outrun by it”.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and Defence Secretary Wes Streeting also spoke at the conference, with Miliband warning about the risks posed by AI and Streeting reaffirming the UK’s NATO defence spending commitment. Healey concluded by linking national industrial strength to security and urging a “new generation” to be guided forward.