Prime Minister will use a speech to mark the
20th anniversary of the independence of the Bank of England today
to stress the importance of the UK’s free market economy.
Having started her professional life at the Bank
of England in 1977, the Prime Minister will use a speech in
London this morning to talk about the value and potential of an
open, innovative, free market economy which operates within the
right regulatory framework.
She will set out how the government is leading a
determined programme of wide-reaching economic reform to ensure
that the UK’s free market economy works in the interests of the
British people.
She is expected to say:
“A free market economy, operating under the
right rules and regulations, is the greatest agent of collective
human progress ever created.
It was the new combination which led
societies out of darkness and stagnation and into the light of
the modern age.
It is unquestionably the best, and indeed
the only sustainable, means of increasing the living standards of
everyone in a country.
And we should never forget that raising the
living standards, and protecting the jobs, of ordinary working
people is the central aim of all economic policy.
Helping each generation to live longer,
fuller, more secure lives than the one which went before
them.
Not serving an abstract doctrine or an
ideological concept – but serving the real interests of the
British people.”
The Prime Minister is also expected to set out
how taking a balanced approach to public spending is key in
ensuring that the economy operates in the interests of working
people;
“That means continuing to deal with our
debts, so that our economy can remain strong and we can protect
people’s jobs.
“At the same time, it means investing in our
vital public services, like schools and hospitals, which our
successful management of the economy has made
possible.
“To abandon that balanced approach with
unfunded borrowing and significantly higher levels of taxation
would damage our economy, threaten jobs, and hurt working
people.
“Ultimately, that would mean less money for
the public services we all rely on.”
The speech will also discuss how the nature of
central banking has changed over the past thirty years with its
new defining characteristics being “openness and
transparency”.
