Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following reports that the economy returned to growth in January after entering a recession in the second half of 2023, what steps they are taking to (1) support, and (2) sustain positive momentum in, sectors of the economy which have shown signs of growth in 2024.

The government is pursuing an ambitious policy agenda to increase growth and productivity across the economy. This includes making full expensing permanent, a tax cut to companies of over £10 billion a year, to ensure the UK has one of the most generous capital allowances regimes in the world and backing the UK’s priority growth sectors. At Spring Budget 2024, the government set out the next steps in delivering a £4.5 billion funding package for strategic manufacturing sectors over the five years to 2030 and announced over £1 billion of new tax reliefs for creative industries.

The IMF forecasts that the UK will have the third fastest cumulative growth in the G7 over the 2024-2028 period and the OBR expects that policies announced in the previous three fiscal events will increase the size of the economy by 0.7% by 2028-29.