The swift plan for housebuilding, the immediate review into the NHS and a parting of the waves for onshore wind soon after the General Election speak of the PM’s urgency in delivering Labour’s mandate.

Little surprise, then, that the King’s speech looks set to contain 35+ proposed bills. (For context, November 2023’s King’s Speech for Rishi Sunak contained 20.) With financial services, fiscal policy and the key sector support in focus , here is our take on the most relevant developments for businesses.

Employment rights bill: New base rights for parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal. Reform to minimum wage to account for cost of living. Ban ‘exploitative’ zero hours contracts and ‘fire and rehire’. 

Fiscal rules bill: Reform to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) remit. Fiscal lock requiring an independent forecast for each fiscal event. 

Energy independence bill: Creation of GB-Energy, reform to Ofgem’s remit and to standing charges. 

Planning bill: Update national planning policy to prioritise strategic infrastructure projects. Creation of a new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority. 

Economic growth bill: Legislate to create the National Wealth Fund, a new Regulatory Innovation Office to coordinate regulation across new technologies and accelerate pension reforms to increase consolidation and investment into the UK. 

Industrial Strategy bill: Legislate to establish an Industrial Strategy Council. 

Housing and renting bill: Abolish Section 21 evictions and extending regulation to tackle “unreasonable rent increases”. Improve building safety and protect leaseholders. Enact Law Commission proposals on leasehold enfranchisement, tackle unregulated ground rent. 

Equalities bill: New law to enshrine full right to equal pay for people with black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, and to enact the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act 2010. 

Devolution bill: Expansion of devolved powers to local authorities over areas over transport, adult education, skills, planning and employment support. Deepen existing Mayoral Combined Authority arrangements. New statutory requirement for Local Growth Plans that cover towns and cities across the country. 

Finance bill (later in parliamentary term): Tax changes, including around VAT on private school fees, enhanced reforms to abolish the non-domiciled regime, expand the Energy Profits Levy beyond its existing deadline, with removed capital reliefs, and alter the treatment of carried interest.

Labour’s gameplan is to develop a strong relationship with the private sector to drive economic growth, especially given the lack of fiscal space. 

While relative political and policy stability will encourage investment, the government will target public investment in pursuit of decarbonisation and through its industrial strategy. Labour has pledged to work closely with industry to address barriers around access to finance, growth and skills. 

Key policies include: 

Industrial Strategy: A new industrial strategy created in partnership with business, through a statutory Industrial Strategy Council, to maximise the UK’s strengths in life sciences, digital, creative, financial services, clean power, automotive, aerospace and defence sectors. Council will also hold government to account with a statutory footing. 

SMEs: Scrap the current business rates system and replace it with a fully costed and fully funded system of business property taxation. Legislate to require the audit committees of big businesses to report on their company’s payment practices. Develop a new SME export strategy alongside industry. 

Dispute: Strengthen the SME bank referral scheme and explore a similar scheme for households. 

Investment: Maintain current structure of Research and Development (R&D) tax credits. Reform the British Business Bank, with additional targets for under-served communities, regional growth and matching funding for Spinout Seed Funds. Greater freedom from government through longer budget cycles. Continue with proposals to support long-term technology funds and co-invest with institutional investors. 

Skills: Reform the Apprenticeship Levy to allow firms to spend up to 50% of their levy contributions, including current underspend, on non-apprenticeship training such as skills training.

To speak with our market specialists about the UK policy outlook and what it could mean for your business, get in touch with your NatWest representative or contact us.