In his first major speech since becoming chancellor, John Healey launched a government-wide drive to curb an ‘industry of dither and delay’ caused by a ‘consultation culture’, only for the government to open a 70-page consultation on a sweeping overhaul of corporate reporting rules minutes later.

Speaking at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry, the chancellor stated: ‘I will take an axe to the thicket of consultation, litigation, and administration which has a stranglehold too often on private investment.’

The chancellor also announced he would extend the reforms of judicial review from energy to all major infrastructure, so that ‘vexatious legislation, vexatious litigation and challenge can’t block economic growth’.

As