In his first major speech since being appointed Reform UK's
Shadow Business, Trade & Energy Secretary, deputy leader
MP will announce the party's
intention to create a brand new Great Office of State: The
Department of Business, Trade & Energy, with the department
also taking responsibility for housing.
Tice will also promise action in four key areas: smart
regulation, strategic trade, cheap energy, and the creation of a
new British Sovereign Wealth Fund in order to turbocharge growth
and prosperity in the UK economy, cut bills for households and
industry, and bring back jobs.
He will say:
“This new Great Office of State covering Business, Trade
& Energy - including housing - will be a joined up,
comprehensive department including the British Sovereign Fund.
Speed and action will be the order of the day. It will be a first
for the UK and is the sort of coordinated, strategic, long term
structure that has served other entrepreneurial high growth
nations so well.
“It will attract the best talent, working together in the
national interest and not separated working in silos. It will
create huge confidence and belief in the UK business community
and excitement internationally that Britain is serious again
about real growth.”
1. Smart Regulation
Tice will say:
“Let's have a Great Repeal Bill that ditches daft
regulations: scrap Net Zero, scrap ZEV mandates, scrap new
employment rights rules, scrap new property rental rules – all
well intentioned but kill jobs, hinder growth, investment and
prosperity. This will all help lower inflation and bring down
bills for consumers.”
In his speech, will outline his intention
to:
- Overhaul housing and planning to get Britain building faster
and more cost-effectively.
- Explore giving trusted planning partners, approved retailers
and housebuilders more trust and latitude, but subject to tougher
fines if they breach the government's trust.
- Cut waste by refusing to spend vast sums on pointless
projects, such as the £100 million HS2 bat tunnel and the £700
million ‘fish disco' in Somerset.
2. Strategic Trade
Tice will say:
“We believe in free and fair trade but we must be robust and
say it is not free and fair when competitors like China use slave
labour, provide heavy subsidies and don't play by the same rules.
That is called cheating."
Targeting successive governments' failure to protect strategic
national industries, Reform's Shadow Trade Secretary will make
clear his commitment to Britain's industrial sector:
- A Reform UK-led trade policy will focus on strategic national
industries, such as steel, oil, gas and defence, to ensure
resilience and prevent vulnerability at times of stress.
- Similarly, Tice will class sectors such as automotive as
“seismic industries”, highlighting that allowing China to
undercut our own automotive industry would be writing off 500,000
jobs in local communities.
- To this end, will call for heavy tariffs
and tight quotas to be imposed on Chinese cars.
3. Cheap Energy
Tice will say:
“To be a rich nation we must have cheap energy. We need
leaders who encourage and motivate the maximum production of our
own oil and gas energy treasure offshore and onshore and ditch
the madness of Net Zero.”
Securing cheap energy and bringing down bills for both households
and industry will be a central pillar of a Reform UK government:
- This means sharply increasing the production of our own oil
and gas, leading to a huge multiplier effect by keeping jobs and
money in the UK.
- It also means drastically reducing the amount of and reliance
on renewables bought from overseas, which creates new
vulnerabilities in Britain's energy market and raises the price
of energy bills.
4. British Sovereign Wealth Fund (BSF)
Tice will say:
“Imagine combining all this with a huge new British Sovereign
Wealth Fund that backs Britain at every level. Other successful
nations like Norway and Singapore have these sovereign funds and
over the medium to long term they have been instrumental to those
countries' growth and prosperity.”
This fund would back British companies and buy British products,
boosting economic growth and bring back jobs across the country:
- The BSF will be in the top 8 largest funds in the world and
boast the very highest quality in-house investment team with a
laser-focus on long-term performance.
- It would own primarily listed shares in the UK and overseas,
as well as having a strategic UK growth mandate.
- It would be co-investing alongside other sovereign wealth
funds and long-term pension funds in exciting sectors such as
high-tech, critical tech, small and medium sized growth companies
with patient capital such as life sciences, and in a limited
amount of strategic national assets.
- Reform would transform the Local Government Pension Scheme
into a single British Sovereign Wealth Fund of up to £575
billion, proudly paying all scheme members while backing British
growth.
