Andy Burnham opened his first conference speech as Prime Minister with an anecdote about a house deposit – the one his grandmother put down after the war, which changed his family’s fortunes. 

It was a personal story that reflected themes we heard over several days in Liverpool while meeting ministers and stakeholders: the importance of opportunity and aspiration, access to good housing, stronger communities, industrial renewal – and growth in every postcode. 

A bigger cake

The Prime Minister focused broadly on the kind of economy he wants to build – an “innovation nation”, with state control of public utilities, power devolved to places and good growth in every postcode. 

Chancellor John Healey put the economic challenge plainly. Fiscal discipline, he said, “underwrites every promise this Government makes”, but Labour “isn’t here just to cut the cake in a different way. We have to bake a bigger cake.” That meant creating the conditions for businesses to invest, make profits and generate jobs and wealth. It was encouraging to hear the Chancellor describe UK financial services as “some of the best in the world”.

Focusing more on the machinery of growth, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds stressed the importance of turning ideas into British businesses, backed by an expanded Growth Guarantee Scheme and a British Business Bank with more capital and dedicated regional funds. 

Where finance comes in

Financial services runs through much of this agenda – a role not always explicit in the conference speeches.

The Your First Home scheme trailed ahead of conference will depend on mortgage lenders. The Growth Guarantee Scheme reaches small firms through accredited lenders. Scale-ups need vibrant capital markets. Reindustrialisation will require private sector capital.  

As our Plan for Growth: From Strategy to Delivery report argued, financial services matter both as a major industry and as a growth enabler across the wider economy. At our conference reception, City Minister Lucy Rigby echoed this, reaffirming the Government’s commitment to its ten-year Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy.

With more decisions set to be made locally, connecting regional priorities with lenders and investors will become increasingly important. Financial services already have a national footprint – more than half of the UK’s 473,000 banking jobs are based outside London and the South East, with over 6,000 in the Liverpool City Region alone.  

That is why our Budget submission proposes a Financial Services Good Growth Council, bringing national and devolved government, public financial institutions and the sector together to connect investable regional opportunities with potential funding partners.

The Budget opportunity

Where pro-growth reforms have been delivered, the financial services sector has responded. 

Changes to mortgage lending rules helped 391,000 first-time buyers onto the housing ladder in 2025 – up almost 18 per cent year-on-year – and firms are already embracing the FCA’s new Targeted Support rules to develop new ways to help consumers make better decisions.

The Budget is an opportunity to build on this momentum: continuing delivery of the financial services reform agenda, increasing the sector’s capacity to lend and invest, and ensuring our capital markets and payments infrastructure can support innovation and enterprise.

Banks in the UK already contribute more than £43 billion a year in tax – around 4.3 per cent of UK tax receipts. That includes revenue from the bank surcharge and bank levy, which sit on top of corporation tax and leave UK banks facing a higher overall tax burden than those in competing international financial centres.

Raising sector-specific taxes further would risk pulling against the Government’s own plans, constraining the sector’s capacity to support growth. Tax stability for our sector is the pro-growth choice at this Budget.

The Chancellor’s central point was that the Government’s desired ends ultimately require the means. Conference set out some of those ends: more homes, stronger businesses, renewed industries and growth across the country.

The means to deliver them depend on a growing economy – and a strong and vibrant financial services sector is critical to driving that growth.