Queen's Speech 2016

This is a one nation Queen’s Speech from a one nation government. It sets out a clear programme of reform, using the strength of our economy to deliver security for working people, increase life chances for the most disadvantaged and strengthen our national security.

With this government economic security always comes first. We have made huge progress in turning our economy around over the last six years. The deficit has been cut by almost two-thirds, we now have the highest employment rate in our history and this year we have seen the number of people claiming unemployment benefits fall to its lowest since 1975. Our economy has grown by over 13% in this period, with over 900,000 more businesses and 764,000 fewer workless households.

But there is far more to be done to entrench our strong economic performance. Last year at the election, we made clear commitments to the British people – and this Queen’s Speech delivers on them, setting out the next steps of our long-term economic plan.

To help create jobs, we will make Britain a world leader in the digital economy, with new obligations on broadband providers to make sure everyone in Britain has access to an affordable high speed internet connection.

To back business, we will make sure Britain has first-class infrastructure, especially when it comes to the transport of the future. To support aspiration and promote home ownership, we will meet our commitment to build a million new homes across the country by reforming planning. And because we want to make sure every part of our country shares in our rising prosperity, we will legislate for a dramatic devolution of power to local areas, giving them complete control over business rate revenues to use as they wish to stimulate economic growth.

These reforms will help people get on. But to spread life chances to everyone, we have to go further in tackling the barriers to opportunity. With this government, the number of people living in poverty has fallen; the number of students from low income backgrounds going to university has risen; hope has returned to communities that were once written off. But there are still too many people left behind – and they need deeper, more intensive help.

In the past six years, whether in education or welfare, this government has consistently demonstrated that we will take on difficult arguments, make difficult choices and undertake big and bold reforms to spread opportunity. This Queen’s Speech is no different.

At its heart are major changes to adoption and social work, so children in care are not doomed to a life of poverty. There are reforms to schools, so excellence that comes with more teacher freedom is spread to every community. There is an expansion of higher education, so just as we uncapped the number of student places we now encourage the new universities that will help educate the next generation.

And because this government sees the potential in everyone, we will finally undertake the long-overdue change that our prisons need. No longer will they be warehouses for criminals; we want them to be incubators of changed and reformed lives.

We also know that we cannot deliver opportunity for all and extend life chances, unless we also tackle the menace of extremism. We should be proud of the fact that today Britain is already one of the most successful multi-racial, multi-faith democracies anywhere on earth. But we must also recognise that extremists – both violent and non-violent – are trying to drive our country apart. So this Queen’s Speech stands up for our liberal values by taking on the extremists with new powers to disrupt their activities, while protecting young people in unregulated schools from those who preach a message of intolerance and separatism.

An important part of the platform for everything we hope to achieve is national security. We cannot extend opportunity or help working people if our country is not safe. So this Queen’s Speech also makes the choice to strengthen our national security. We will invest in Britain’s armed forces, honouring our NATO commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence. To support global stability and prevent new threats to our security, we will also meet our commitment on international development spending. And in an ever more dangerous and unstable world, where the threats to our country are increasing not diminishing, we will secure the long-term future of our nuclear deterrent and give our security and intelligence agencies the powers they need to keep us safe.

This is a Queen’s Speech that uses the strong foundations of our economy to make a series of bold choices that will improve lives across the country.