Prime Minister’s speech is an important first step in recovering from COVID-19

Following the Prime Minister’s economic recovery speech, Nick Molho, Executive Director of the Aldersgate Group, said: “The Prime Minister’s speech today is an important first step. It demonstrates his vision to build back better and tackle some of the UK’s unresolved challenges as the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Welcome announcements include investments of £900m for a range of ‘shovel ready’ local growth projects in England over the course of this year and next, as well as the Prime Minister’s commitment to reforest Britain by planting over 75,000 acres of trees every year by 2025.”

Nick Molho added: “The Prime Minister’s speech rightly identifies the importance of ‘building back greener’ but this has to be rapidly backed up by support for shovel ready projects and policy decisions that are aligned with the UK’s climate, environmental and clean growth goals. This means focusing public investment and policy measures in areas such as nature restoration, energy efficiency, clean transport, industrial decarbonisation, and skills [1]. Such an approach is not just needed to meet the UK’s environmental ambitions, but it is also essential to ensure that the UK’s recovery plan can address key public interest concerns around unemployment, regional inequality and resilience.”