Liz Truss’s bold and ambitious economic plan is just the remedy that we need. She knows that we need to depart from the business-as-usual economic managerialism that has led to our sluggish economic growth.
This means cutting taxes on business to incentivise investment and innovation — Liz plans to cut corporation tax back to 19 per cent. It means simplifying the tax system so we are internationally competitive, able to attract the investment and business confidence that breeds growth. And it means reforming business rates to help small businesses, the traction engine of our economy. This is something that the hospitality and retail sectors in particular have been crying out for over my two years as minister covering that vital part of the ecosystem of our great capital.
Liz’s plan will be a boon to London’s economy. She will grasp the benefits of Brexit to unleash the City’s enormous untapped potential. She will ensure that every rule our businesses have to follow is appropriate to Britain. Each EU regulation that doesn’t work for our businesses or services industries, and holds back our economic growth, should be scrapped. Liz will do this.
Liz understands that we cannot tax our way to growth, and will turn things around by unshackling the City with lower taxes and supply-side reform. Lower business taxes and a simpler tax system are what London and our world-leading financial services need.
But London cannot foster a growing economy without first being a safe city. Sadiq Khan’s biggest failure as London Mayor has been the surge in crime —especially the increasing rates of violence against women. Liz is clear that now it is time to start delivering safety for Londoners again. She will set a target for the Met Police to cut crime in London by a fifth by 2024 and has committed to delivering on our 2019 promise of having 20,000 more police officers on the beat.
We must also get our city moving properly. Through emergency legislation to make disruptive strikes harder to achieve, Liz Truss will stop the RMT from shutting down London.
