Rachel Reeves to fast-track benefits crackdown and announce house building drive in growth drive
Rachel Reeves to fast-track benefits crackdown and announce house building drive in growth drive
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RACHEL Reeves today reveals she is fast-tracking a crackdown on sickness benefits as she declares: “We cannot keep footing the bill” for jobless Britain. Ministers will now publish their long-awaited plan to slash billions from the disability benefits bill before the Spring Statement on March 26.
![[Rachel Reeves at the World Economic Forum in Davos.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/plans-abolish-non-dom-status-966107530.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The Treasury is believed to be looking at cutting benefits for people who are signed off for “bad nerves” and anxiety to encourage Brits back to work. It comes as the Chancellor prepares to set out her plan to breathe new life into the flatlining economy with a big growth speech later this week.
Casting off her usual doom and gloom, she has vowed to unleash Britain’s “animal spirit” and bring more Trump-like positivity to the economy. She will kick off by announcing that newts and nimbys will no longer be able to block new housebuilding as part of sweeping planning reforms.
Writing exclusively for The Sun on Sunday, Ms Reeves vows to slash “unnecessary regulation and red tape” and “turbocharge our economy”. Promising to get tough on welfare, she says the Tories “lost complete control of the benefits bill” spending £8 billion more than they budgeted for.
She adds: “As a country, we cannot keep footing the bill for the spiralling numbers of people out of work. “Next week I will tell the country that when it comes to our welfare system, I will not hesitate to act, as we have done to restore the public finances. That includes looking closely at the rising cost of health and disability benefits.
