Improving living standards for working people through economic
growth will be the central focus of new laws set to be unveiled
by His Majesty The King today [Wednesday 17 July].
In the first State Opening of Parliament under this government,
The King's Speech is expected to unveil over 35 bills and draft
bills which will support delivery of the Government's first steps
and missions to rebuild Britain.
The package of bills will focus on growing the economy through
better transport, more jobs and turbocharging building of houses
and infrastructure – helping to make every part of the country
better off.
Prime Minister said:
“Now is the time to take the brakes off Britain. For too long
people have been held back, their paths determined by where they
came from - not their talents and hard work.
“I am determined to create wealth for people up and down the
country. It is the only way our country can progress, and my
government is focussed on supporting that aspiration.
“Today's new laws will take back control and lay the
foundations of real change that this country is crying out for,
creating wealth in every community and making people better off -
supporting their ambitions, hopes and
dreams.”
Transport
New legislation will be introduced to create a simplified rail
system by bringing rail services into public ownership once their
contracts expire or if operators fail to deliver on their
commitments. This approach will avoid the burden falling on
taxpayers to cough up for compensation to operators for taking
services into public ownership.
Transferring operations to the public sector will save the
taxpayer millions of pounds currently paid out in fees to private
operators each year. It will end the fragmentation of our
railways, establishing a more efficient and reliable rail service
for passengers – helping to get people to work on time and
boosting productivity.
The government will also introduce legislation to establish a new
public body, Great British Railways (GBR) which will be focused
on improving services and creating better value for money for
passengers.
With Great British Railways, the fares and ticketing system will
see simplified fares, discounts, and ticket types. Once
established, the new body will also ensure that ticketing
innovations like automatic compensation, digital pay-as-you-go
and digital season ticketing are rolled out across the whole
network.
The King's Speech is also expected to feature a Better Buses Bill
to deliver the Government's manifesto commitment to reform the
bus system by delivering new powers for local leaders to
franchise local bus services and to lift the restriction on new
publicly owned bus operators.
This will help bring an end to the postcode lottery of bus
services and will give local communities throughout England the
power to take back control of their bus services. It will mean
local leaders can decide to introduce better bus networks, at
pace, which reflect the needs of the local communities that rely
on them.
Building
Getting Britain to build more housing and infrastructure,
including through planning reform, will also be central to the
Government's plans to strengthen economic growth.
The Bill will speed up and streamline the planning process to
build more homes of all tenures and accelerate the delivery of
major infrastructure projects.
By enabling democratic engagement with how, not if, homes and
infrastructure are built – the major brakes on the planning
system will be addressed to support sustainable growth.
Empowering local communities
As part of the Government's plans to empower local leaders
to deliver change for their communities, The King's Speech is
also expected to unveil the English Devolution Bill. This will
deliver the Government's manifesto commitment to transfer power
into local communities and recognising the vital role local
leaders play in supporting growth by establishing local growth
plans that bring economic benefit to communities and households
across the country.
The Speech will build on the first fortnight of the Government's
mission of national renewal.
From the launch of a National Wealth Fund to strengthen UK
investment, to a new Mission Control tasked with turbocharging
the UK to clean power by 2030, to opening the recruitment of a
new Border Security Command, and the Deputy Prime Minister's
pledge to kickstart a new devolution revolution to transfer more
powers out of Westminster and into the hands of local people –
the Government is hitting the ground running and wasting no time
in its work to change the country.
