May I start by paying tribute to my predecessor, my rig [3D [K right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West and Pudsey (Rachel Reeves)? I a [1D [K am proud to have been a member of a Government with the first female Chance [6D [K Chancellor in 700 years. She did hard yards on the task of rebuilding Brita [5D [K Britain's fiscal credibility, public services and levels of growth after 14 [2D [K 14 years of Conservative Governments' failure. I now build on her work. Yes [3D [K Yesterday, I set out the Government's determination to see the next chapter [7D [K chapter of Britain's growth story written in more places. That means more d [1D [K devolution and the combined force of the Government to get things done, bac [3D [K back businesses and get more investment, innovation and jobs across the UK. [3D [K UK.

My hon. Friend does a great job of standing up for the people of Ayrshire. The £11.8 million will fund jobs, training and business start-ups right across Ayrshire. In England, this is a Government who are backing local areas to generate growth in more areas, and I would love to see the Scottish nationalist Government do the same.

Mr Spock, I think some would say, Mr Speaker! My hon. Friend is right. Despite global conflicts, trade tensions and rising threats in the world, which are pushing up inflation, bearing down on growth and pushing up borrowing costs, the UK economy is demonstrating huge resilience. He is right that in the first six months of this year, the UK economy grew the fastest in the G7. I set out yesterday some early steps to back stronger growth in more places: backing innovation with more investment in fast-growth firms across the north; changing the Government’s Green Book discount rate so that projects across the country with long-term potential will get a fairer hearing; and taking an axe to the thicket of administration that too often slows down decisions, holds back growth and prevents the private investment that we need.

The hon. Gentleman could have asked that question to any Chancellor at any time in the past few decades, and no Chancellor ahead of a Budget would have commented on speculation or ruled out measures. I will set out the decisions I take before the House on 28 October, and I look forward to him being there on that day.

After years of delay, indecision and often vexatious challenge, we have given the go-ahead to this project quite simply because the economic case stacks up and will help to bring growth.

I thank my hon. Friend for that, for the work she does in chairing the Treasury Committee and for her previous work on the Public Accounts Committee. She is right about the damage of speculation ahead of Budget. It led last year, for instance, to a large number of people cashing in pension pots, but the speculation was entirely unfounded.
On my hon. Friend’s question about the National Wealth Fund, we have capitalised it by over £200 billion, and the challenge is to ensure that we get good value-for-money decisions, but decisions made quicker, so that we can get investment into local areas to see private investment bring the growth that we need.

At the Budget last year, my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West and Pudsey (Rachel Reeves) continued the freeze in the personal allowance, which was first brought in by the Conservatives, in order to help fund the improvements in health and schools that this country needs that the people voted for at the election just two years ago. We will keep all of this under review, as we always do. Reform is making promises that it simply cannot keep. The right hon. Gentleman is right that I have known him a long time; I say to him and to the country that he is also a man whose own party leader described as
“a man that believed in nothing”.

I could have spoken a lot longer yesterday. In the [K two years of this Labour Government, we have started to see this country be [2D [K beginning to turn a corner. This is a country in which interest rates have [K been cut six times since the election; in which borrowing, which is still t [1D [K too high, is down to a six-year low; in which growth was fastest in the fir [3D [K first half of this year in the G7; and in which productivity and investment [10D [K investment are finally, after long Conservative years, beginning to tick up [2D [K up.

The hon. Lady is talking to the person who led the [K work to establish a defence and security partnership with the European Unio [4D [K Union and bilateral agreements with other countries. On the question of the [3D [K the Budget, I ask the hon. Lady to look at what we have done in the seven w [1D [K weeks of this Government. We will take steps where we can to do that. I wil [3D [K will take that principle into the Budget, and we will back business and do [K what we can to see growth in more places across the country.