6:54 am, July 18, 2024
King’s Speech sets out plan to ‘get Britain building’
Sir Keir Starmer set out plans to tear up planning red tape, reform the economy and restore trust in politics in a sweeping set of changes in the Labour Government’s first King’s Speech.
The Prime Minister vowed to ‘turn the page on an era of politics as noisy performance and return it to public service and start the work of rebuilding our country’ with a programme containing 40 proposed pieces of legislation.
Sir Keir said this would be ‘a determined rebuilding, a patient rebuilding, a calm rebuilding, a rejection in this complicated and volatile world of those who can only offer the easy answer, the snake oil charm of populism’.
Government pledges to strengthen cybersecurity and boost data services
The Government has pledged to strengthen the UK’s cybersecurity and resilience, as well as take greater advantage of data to boost economic growth, through new Bills announced in the King’s Speech.
A reported fully-fledged AI Bill was not announced during the State Opening of Parliament, but the King’s Speech set out how the Government would ‘seek to establish the appropriate legislation to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models’.
In response to the ever-increasing risk of cyber attacks, the new Labour Government said it would introduce the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which would give greater power to regulators to push more firms to implement better cybersecurity defences.
Nationalising train services is ‘not a practical solution’, private firms say
A Bill to bring train operation into public ownership has been described by private rail companies as a ‘political not a practical solution’.
Rail Partners, which represents private sector train operators, said legislation announced in the King’s Speech will ‘increase costs’. The Railways Bill will ensure that appointing a public sector train operator as existing contracts expire will be the default position rather than a last resort.
The Government said this will avoid the need to pay compensation to current operators and will save taxpayers millions of pounds each year that are paid out in fees to private train companies.
Wednesday’s Car Dealer headlines you might have missed
- UHY Hacker Young boss ‘amazed’ that overseas investor has not ‘taken out’ Vertu
- Another tough month for UK’s Top 200 car dealers as sales and revenues slump again
- James Brearley appointed managing director of Lookers as dealer group looks for stability
- Cap HPI appoints Craig Bridgman to senior editor role on valuations team
Seat removes Tarraco from line-up ahead of new Terramar arrival
Seat has removed its largest SUV – the Tarraco – from sale to make space for the upcoming Cupra Terramar.
The Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace-rivalling model went on sale back in 2019, however, with a push towards electrification in full swing, the Spanish firm has decided to pull the plug and concentrate on its plug-in and hybrid vehicles.
The Tarraco will be replaced by the new Cupra Terramar which is due to go on sale later this year as a hybrid SUV.
Here comes our newest hybrid SUV, the #CUPRATerramar – named after the place where our story began – ready to completely shake up one of the most competitive segments in our industry. #CUPRAimpulse pic.twitter.com/itDxnHA0La
— CUPRA (@CUPRA) June 7, 2022
King’s speech policies ‘fall short’ for small business, say trade groups
Policy announcements in the new Labour Government’s first King’s Speech ‘fell short’ in supporting small firms across the UK to help drive economic growth, according to business groups.
Industry leaders said challenges facing small businesses were largely ‘overlooked’ on Wednesday.
Some business groups said more still needs to be done by the Government in order to accelerate growth across communities across the country.
Pound bounces to year-high versus dollar after inflation holds at 2%
The pound and London stocks both climbed higher after inflation was hotter-than-expected last month.
The pound was up 0.26% at 1.300 US dollars and was up 0.01% at 1.190 euros.
The FTSE 100 finished 22.56 points, or 0.28% higher to end the day at 8,187.46. Meanwhile, the Cac 40 in France ended 0.12% lower and the Dax index was down 0.4% at the close.
Heat health alerts issued as temperatures near 30C
Yellow heat health alerts have been issued as temperatures look set to reach around 30C.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) alerts cover East Midlands, East England, London and the South East from Thursday to Saturday.
It warns that expected hot weather may have minor impacts on the health and social care sector.
