The Kings' Speech on July 17 announced the Starmer government's legislative programme [1]. Several bills set out the economic policy, the version of the neoliberal direction that the government plans to take.

National Wealth Fund

A central pillar of the programme is the National Wealth Fund Bill. It appears that this is an initiative of new Chancellor Rachel Reeves and former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney [2], who is being brought back into the fold of British politics as a member of the National Wealth Fund Taskforce along with the CEOs of Barclays and Aviva [3].

This is a multi-billion-pound pay-the-rich scheme to provide public funds to private interests. The fund will use the existing UK Infrastructure Bank and British Business Bank to generate public-private financing arrangements for industry, ports, and renewable energy. The Fund is presented as crucial to solving environmental, infrastructure, and investment problems, but it is the latest iteration of public-private partnership schemes, which have become the main neoliberal economic arrangement and a key factor in the politicisation of private interests. The financial institution is being established to organise new public-private partnerships, continuing the anti-social offensive, and giving it new impetus by further changing the state's arrangements directly around private interests.

Reeves uses the well-worn slogan of "investment with reform" [4]. In the past, this was used to declare that social programmes would only receive investment to the extent that they were opened up to capital and market forces. Now it is being used to declare that state investment in general - in particular for infrastructure - will only come with restructuring the state itself. The new Fund is to be used to enforce this.

Infrastructure projects

One key function of the fund will be to support infrastructure projects and house building, as the owners of capital demand a safe place to invest, especially during times of economic uncertainty. The government's shift from ostensibly small to overtly big government is evident in the announced Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which will increase the police powers of the state and enforce building projects. The bill will also streamline the planning process, allowing local communities to determine "how, not if" homes and infrastructure are built. The government aims to grant new powers to public bodies to use compulsory purchase orders to acquire land without ministerial authorisation [5].

Control over energy

Alongside house building, the main infrastructure project is the other central pillar of the economic programme: "clean" energy, principally in the form of wind turbines and nuclear power.

The Great British Energy Billwill establish Great British Energy, a state-run company to be headquartered in Scotland that will operate various large-scale power projects. The Crown Estate, the public estate of the monarch, with its £16 billion portfolio of hereditarily held land and property, along with financial connections, will collaborate with the new company to bring in an aimed £60 billion of private investment [6]. The Crown Estates Bill has been introduced for this purpose.

It is therefore again a kind of public private partnership, which, in the government's own words, means "investing in energy projects alongside the private sector" and "will see the public sector taking on a new role undertaking additional early development work for offshore wind projects. This will ensure that future offshore wind development has lower risk for developers..." [6]

The government dreams that Britain will achieve so-called energy independence and, in the process, become a "clean energy superpower", with Britain a key hub in the global energy corridors, and where wind power is controlled from Britain. Building supply chains across the country is therefore listed as a key function of GB Energy. Similarly, the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill introduces a new pay-the-rich scheme dressed as decarbonising air travel but likewise aimed at "energy independence" and making Britain an energy superpower [7]. This latest rehash of "making Britain great again" is part of the pro-war programme; there is nothing green about it.

Indeed, the previous Sunak government earlier this year proudly declared that Britain will be the first European country to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), in a direct challenge to Russia's dominance of the nuclear fuel market [8]. The US are also investing in this new fuel. The Starmer government is in no way abandoning this programme, a competition for £70 million of funding currently underway [9]. This is despite warnings that this type of uranium has theoretical weapons potential [10].

Enough is Enough

The government's economic programme is entirely directed to these empire-building aims. It will require massive public funding and bearing of the risk that the private interests it backs will not accept. "Growth is now our national mission," declared Reeves [4]. Meanwhile, a massive budget shortfall has been announced, leading to the prospect of cuts in, for example, road and rail projects [11]. Pensions will be targeted, for which the Pension Schemes Bill, facilitating the consolidation of pension pots, is part of preparing the ground [12]. The plan is to use private pension money to invest in unlisted companies [13], while changes to increase the tax on pensions are being floated [14].

The way the government poses the problem is that what is holding back growth is a lack of investment, and investment requires pay-the-rich schemes. The workers, on the other hand, do not see paying the rich as the key to investment in what society needs. Instead, they have been fighting for their individual, collective, and social claims, developing a movement under the banner of Enough is Enough! Their independent programme is to stop paying the rich and increase investments in social programmes.

In reality, the government's economic programme is a stepping up of the anti-social offensive. Despite attempts to divert and block the movement, such as through the Employment Rights Bill, the crisis of legitimacy of ruling circles is only set to deepen. Workers will take up the problem of who controls the economy, the social product, and who makes decisions that affect their lives, determined to change the direction of the economy to meet their needs and those of society, bringing an end to pro-war government and its national chauvinistic aims.

Notes
1. "The King's Speech 2024", July 17, 2024
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-kings-speech-2024
2. "Canadian Foreign Influence in British Election Considered a Good Thing", Hilary LeBlanc, TML Monthly Supplement, July 2024
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54413.HTM
3."What a national wealth fund is and why Chancellor Rachel Reeves has launched one in the UK", Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, Sky News, July 9, 2024
https://news.sky.com/story/what-a-national-wealth-fund-is-and-why-chancellor-rachel-reeves-has-launched-one-in-uk-13175622 4. Rachel Reeves, Speech at 1 Horse Guards Rd, London, July 8, 2024
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellor-rachel-reeves-is-taking-immediate-action-to-fix-the-foundations-of-our-economy
5."UK overhauls planning rules in race to build new homes", Jim Pickard, Joshua Oliver and Peter Foster, FT, July 17, 2024
https://www.ft.com/content/1cc1d7d0-a0d8-4fbf-9602-dd272090a140
6. "New Great British Energy partnership launched to turbocharge energy independence", Government press release, July 25, 2024
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-great-british-energy-partnership-launched-to-turbocharge-energy-independence
7. "Sustainable Aviation Update", Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh, Statement made on 22 July 2024
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-07-22/hcws16
8. "UK first in Europe to invest in next generation of nuclear fuel", Claire Coutinho and Rishi Sunak, May 8, 2024
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-first-in-europe-to-invest-in-next-generation-of-nuclear-fuel
9."The U.S. and U.K. are both investing in HALEU. How do the programs compare?", Nuclear Newswire, August 1, 2024
https://dev.ans.org/news/article-6260/the-us-and-uk-are-both-investing-in-haleu-how-do-the-programs-compare/
10. "The weapons potential of high-assay low-enriched uranium", R. Scott Kemp et al., Science 384, 1071-1073 (2024)
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado8693#tab-citations
11. "Chancellor Rachel Reeves to axe projects after review of finances", Faisal Islam and Lucy Hooker, BBC News, July 28, 2024
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c724g07qwdwo
12. "King's Speech 2024: 'surprise' pension schemes bill unveiled", Alina Khan, FT, July 17, 2024
https://www.ftadviser.com/pensions/2024/07/17/king-s-speech-2024-surprise-pension-schemes-bill-unveiled
13. "Still 'early stage' of UK efforts to tap pension pots for growth", Huw Jones, Reuters, July 30, 2024 \
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/still-early-stage-uk-efforts-tap-pension-pots-growth-2024-07-30
14. "Chancellor urged to tax pension savings", Grace Gausden, i News, July 24, 2024
https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/pensions-and-retirement/chancellor-urged-tax-pension-savings-what-mean-you-3186877

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