Osborne Speech

8/13/2019 Osborne Speech

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Thank you inviting me to speak to you today here at Sertec.

Im here because youre a great manufacturing company, of the kind we need to seemany more of in this country.

You make parts for British cars that are exported all around the world.

When we hear on the news that our economy is recovering, people wonder what it meansfor them.

For some it feels abstract, remote.

But here theres nothing abstract about the 200 new employees this company has created

in the last year.

Or the 400 additional people that Sertec has announced today it will be taking on in the

next four years.

Thats a vote of confidence in the workforce here.

Its a vote of confidence in the Midlands.

Its also a vote of confidence in the economic plan that is working for Britain.

This factory is a good place to talk about that plan.

For you know more than most that the world does not owe Britain a living.

Car manufacturing is fiercely competitive.

Components can be sourced from around the world.

You know that there are hundreds of companies in dozens of countries that would like to

be manufacturing the products you make here.

And its only because of your skill and your professional approach that the work comes

herehere to this company.

If the quality slipped, or the costs went up or the company was badly runthen the jobswould go elsewhere.

What is true of this company is true of our country.

Its because the rest of the world sees that Britain is a country where were now back in

control of our destiny, a country where were supporting business, that jobslike the

ones here today - are being created across our country.


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Over one million new jobs.

But if our country is badly run, if the finances are in a mess, and costs go up, andbusinesses dont feel welcome, then jobs would quickly disappear from Britain again.

Our country was in a real mess a few years agomore so than almost any other majorcountry in the world.

Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs.

Millions of families like yours have seen their incomes squeezed.

Britain was made a lot poorer.

Thats the terrible price people totally unconnected with politics and politicians pay when

you get the wrong economic policy.

Its why getting the right plan and holding to itis so important.

Weve got the right plan now.

Its a long term plan for turning our country around.

Ive never promised it was going to be easy.

I went out of my way to say the oppositeand be open with you about the difficult

sacrifices we had to make.

And like the success of this company, its been a team effort with a lot of hard work.

Now that team effort is paying off.

The plan is working.

For the first time in a long time, theres a real sense that Britain is on the rise.

Jobs are being created.

The deficit is coming down.

That brings its own risks.

As we start the New Year, I want to warn you about a dangerous new complacencyaround at the moment.


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You hear some talking as if the hard part of the job is doneand we can go back to the

bad old habits.

But beware those who come along this year and promise you easy answers, no more

sacrifices, just more spending on this and more spending on that, all paid for by more

borrowing.

[political content removed]

For the truth is there are still plenty of risks out there.

Our biggest trading partner, the Eurozone, is still weak.

And there are fears about slowing growth in the emerging economies further afield.

Here at home, the banking system is still not working as we need it to, so were still

fixing it.

We have to do even more to encourage the exports and investment and saving oureconomy needs for a responsible recovery.

Above all, weve still got a huge amount to do to reduce the deficit and get our debtsfalling.

And its worth remembering, as the festive season comes to an end, that our ownindependent Office for Budget Responsibility, is predicting a slowing of quarterly GDP

growth this year.

So its far too soon to say: job done.

Its not even half done.

Thats why 2014 is the year of hard truths.

The year when Britain faces a choice.

Do we say: "the worst is over; back we go to our bad habits of borrowing and spending

and living beyond our meansand let the next generation pay the bill"?

Or do we say to ourselves: yes, because of our plan, things are getting better.

But there is still a long way to goand there are big, underlying problems we have to fixin our economy.

More repairs.


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More cuts.

More difficult decisions.

Thats the choice in 2014: to go on working through a plan that is delivering for Britain,

putting us back in control of our destiny with the security and peace of mind that brings;

or squander what weve achieved and go back to economic ruin.

Ultimately its your choice a choice for the British people.

Our long term economic plan has five key parts to it.

The first is to go on reducing the deficit so we deal with our debtsbecause thats the

way to safeguard our economy for the long term and keep mortgage rates low.

If 2014 is a year of hard truths for our country, then it starts with this one: Britain shouldnever return to the levels of spending of the last government.

Wed either have to return borrowing to the dangerous levels that threatened our stability,

or wed have to raise taxes so much wed put our country out of business.

Government is going to have to be permanently smallerand so too is the welfare

system.

When I took this job, Britain was borrowing more than 400 million every single day to

pay for government spending.

But as a result of the painful cuts weve made, the deficit is down by a third and were

borrowing nearly 3000 less for every one of you and for every family in the country.

Thats the good news.

The bad news is: theres still a long way to go.

Were borrowing around 100 billion a year and paying half that money a year in

interest just to service our debts.

Weve got to make more cuts.

17bn this coming year.

20bn next year.

And over 25bn further across the two years after.


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That's more than 60bn in total.

Some say theyd deal with the deficit, but they shy away from committing to numbers.

So this year, were going to ask Parliament to vote on these plans.

I want our countrys commitment to economic stability entrenched.

Even after weve reduced the amount we borrow each year, that still leaves us with a high

debt from all the past borrowing.

That debt leaves Britain vulnerableand I want to make us safe.

So Im going to ask Parliament to vote too this year on a new charter for budgetresponsibility that will commit us to reducing those debts.

It means not spending again when borrowing falls, including using surpluses in goodyears to reduce debtso in future, we fix the roof when the sun is shining.

These votes will force Parliament to make a choice and confront the truth.

We also need to confront truths about the cost of living.

I know it has been hard for families since the crash.

It is not a case of not understanding these difficulties.

Its a case of being honest about why things are difficult and what we can actually do tomake things better.

The truth is that Britain is poorer because of the great recession that happened, and

families feel that.

As the economy recovers, so too will family finances.

Peoples earnings are expected to go up.

Inflation has fallen, and that helps.

So too does the governments action to cut the costs we impose on your family gas and

electricity bills.

But theres no point pretending that theres some magic wand a Chancellor can wave to

make the whole country feel richer than it actually isor that I can control the global oilprice from an office in Whitehall.


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Its simply not being straight with people.

The only way to improve peoples living standards for the long term is for Britain to earnits way in the world and create more, better jobsjust as this company is doing every

day.

And if government wants to find a direct way to put money into peoples pockets, you do

that by permanently cutting peoples taxes by permanently cutting the spending those

taxes pay for.

Thats what the second part of our long term plan is about: cutting income taxes andfreezing fuel duty to help hardworking people be more financially secure.

This April, youll see what that means in your wage packet.

Thats when we increase the tax-free allowance to 10,000 - and it means in total an extra

60 or so a month for the typical worker.

Im also freezing fuel duty again this year, so your car will cost 11 less to fill up than it

would have done.

And from next year, there will be tax free childcare - to help working families.

Making tax promises like these is meaningless unless youre prepared to say how youd

pay for them.

Weve paid for every single pounds worth of these tax cuts all 50 billion in total

without a single penny of extra borrowing because weve made the savings needed in thecost of government.

Its all about fairness and whose side youre on.

And while no sensible Chancellor ever rules out tax changes, our whole economic plan

can be delivered by reducing spending further not by increasing taxes.

Thats how you create a country wherepeople who work hard and want to get on are

supported.

You all know that there is no better financial security than having a joband so thats thethird part of our plan: creating more jobs by backing small business and enterprise withbetter infrastructure and lower jobs taxes.

Thanks to this plan, there are now a record number of people in work in our country.

But as you know here at Sertec, the competition is fierce and the work can go anywherein the world.


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If we are going to go on being a country where companies grow, invest and want to take

on new people, then weve got to make ourselves the best place in the world to do

business.

Thats why Im cutting business taxes, introducing an employment allowance that will

benefit small firms most.

Its why Im helping with high street business rates and now Im abolishing jobs tax

altogether for those aged under 21.

These are all steps were taking as part of our plan to create more jobs in Britain.

Others say theyd do the opposite.

They say businesses should pay more with a higher corporate tax rate.

I think that would send a disastrous signal to the rest of the world about the directionBritain was heading in.

It would cost jobs and investment.

It would be a massive own-goal for Britain.

It would also be a mistake if we didnt invest in future infrastructure that our country

needs to be prosperous.

Like the new power plants that keep factories like this going, and the roads and railways

and broadband that carry our goods and services.

Thats why weve made spending on these things the priority when money is tight.

Its why I say we need more homes, and to support families who dream of owning a

home with our Help to Buy.

And its why were prepared to take controversial decisions on long term things like high

speed rail, and the search for cheaper gas in shale.

Because I dont want to condemn our country to ageing infrastructure and expensive

energy when so many others in the world are heading in the direction of the future.

A strong economy and a fair economy go hand in hand.

We have to make sure the recovery supports those who work hard and play by the rules.

Thats why the fourth part of our economic plan is about reducing immigration and

capping welfare.


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Migration, when its controlled, is an important part of a successful economy.

But uncontrolled immigration, of the kind we saw over the last decade, brings pressureson public services and leads to abuse of our welfare system.

Thats why weve tightened the rules so people cant just come to this countryto claimbenefits - and its why for the first time weve introduced an immigration cap.

That new fairness applies across our welfare system too.

Britain is a proud country that does, and in my view always should, protect the mostvulnerable through our welfare system.

But it should not be a welfare system that offers up benefits as a lifestyle choice.

We need to be fair to those who need our welfare systemand fair to those like you who

pay their taxes for that system.

Benefits are now capped, so no family gets more for being out of work than the averagefamily gets from being in work.

And with our new Universal Credit, were going to make sure it always pays to work.

In 2014, were bringing in more changes.

The long term unemployed are no longer going to get something for nothing.

Theyll have to put back into their community, including compulsory work, with ourHelp to Work.

And this year, we will for the first time set a cap on the overall welfare budget so it can

be properly controlled.

State pensions wont be included in that cap.

As the Prime Minister said this weekend, we are committed to giving everyone whos

worked hard and saved though their lives the generous state pension they deserve.

And the country can only afford to do so because of the difficult decision weve taken onincreasing the pension age as the population lives longer.

That saves many billions of pounds for taxpayers; and we need to save billions morefrom the rest of the welfare budget.

When you think about the competition this factory faces from around the globe, and the

kind of world your children are going to grow up in, wouldnt it make more sense that


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your government was spending your money on things like schools and science and a

better NHS than more welfare?

So heres another hard truth: welfare cannot be protected from further substantial cuts.

I can tell you today that on the Treasurys current forecasts, 12 billion of further welfarecuts are needed in the first two years of next Parliament.

Thats how to reduce the deficit without even faster cuts to government departments, or

big tax rises on people.

So when you see people on the telly who say that welfare cant be cut anymore - or, even

worse, promising they will reverse the changes weve already made and increase housing

benefit - ask yourself this:

what public services would they would cut instead?

what taxes they would put up in their place?

or would they borrow and spend more, and risk our countrys economic stability again?

This is what I mean when I say Britain has a choice.

The truth is there are no easy options here, and if we are to fix our countrys problems,

and not leave our debts to our children to pay off, then cutting the welfare bill further isthe kind of decision we need to make.

The final part of our economic plan is all about delivering the best schools and skills foryoung people so the next generation can succeed in the global race.

I want the new jobs being advertised right here at this company to go to local kidscoming out of the schools and colleges here.

But thats only going to happen if standards are high enough.

One of the most depressing discoveries of 2013 was that over the last decade Britains

education fell even further behind other countries in the world.

Reversing that is essential.

Thats why were turning more and more schools into academies, and creating new free

schools.

Its why we insist on exam standards that are more rigorous.


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Were also creating many more apprenticeships, so more young adults get a chance to

earn and learn in companies like this.

And this autumn well start lifting the cap we impose on the number of university

students.

If Britain is going to compete in the global race to the top, there should be no limits on

aspirationswe need all our young people to develop their talents to the maximum.

So thats our long term economic plan with 5 key points.

Cutting the deficit.

Reducing taxes for hardworking people.

Creating more jobs by backing business.

Capping immigration and welfare.

Delivering the best schools and skills.

It is a plan that is working.

But growing the economy, helping businesses succeed, reducing the deficit: these are notan end in themselvesthey are a means to an end.

So let me set out clearly what that end is, what our long term economic plan is really for

what the motivation behind it is.

Our plan is about more than rescuing our economy from the brink of collapse.

Its about instilling a new belief in Britain.

So we can all live in a country that is in control of its own destiny in this world.

A country where we can have the peace of mind that comes with knowing you can

provide for your family.

A country that offers security and a better life for the next generation.

Peace of mind.

Security.

A better life for our children.


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Controlling our own destiny.

Our economic plan is for the long term.

And just as there are no short-cuts to the work you do here, theres no short-cut to that

economic security for Britain.

Thanks to the hard work of the British people, our economy is on the mendand ourcountry is doing better.

But what was hard won, can be easily lost.

So we have a choice in 2014.

We can give up, go back to square one, risk everything.

Or we can confront the hard truth that more difficult decisions are neededand workthrough the plan that is turning Britain around.

I say: lets finish the job.

Documents

Osborne Speech