Party Conference season is now in full swing with each party rallying support, aiming to shape the political agenda and attract media attention.

Over the weekend, Reform UK held its annual conference, drawing a larger-than-expected audience and offering a glimpse into a movement seeking to evolve from political start-up to a more professional force. As part of ACE’s coverage of conference season, Ben Brittain, Public Affairs Director attended and shares the main take-aways for our sector.

Infrastructure featured on the fringes of the Reform UK Party Conference as one driver of productivity growth. The party reaffirmed its opposition to HS2, instead advocating the redirection of funds into regional rail investment. This reflects a focus on connectivity outside London, though detail on which projects, or on delivery and funding, remains limited.  

At the conference Richard Tice, Deputy Leader, acknowledged the importance of infrastructure to economic growth but has yet to articulate a comprehensive framework that links investment to sustainability goals. Monetary policy, rather than infrastructure, was discussed with greater depth, with Tice floating the idea of “performance-related tax cuts,” tying reductions in taxation to productivity and growth gains. He criticised current Treasury and Bank of England modelling and called for “dynamic modelling” that better reflects behavioural responses to fiscal incentives.

While Reform announced its intentions to prepare for government, the conference overall illustrated little thought-out thinking on infrastructure policy, but it did indicate a move toward its formation with its new policy unit, headed up Zia Yusuf. The processes and substance needed to build credibility are therefore still a work in progress.

Next stop: Marie-Claude will be heading to Bournemouth for the Liberal Democrats conference on Saturday 20 September to Tuesday 23 September.