‘Delivery, Delivery, Delivery’ … or … ‘Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose’ ?

 Sir Keir Starmer (2025) & French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1849)

Sir Keir Starmer set out the stall for his massive reshuffle well before the departure of Angela Rayner, in his in-depth interview with the BBC’s Matt Chorley early last week: placing a real focus on ‘Delivery, Delivery, Delivery’ and claiming that’s what a Labour Government really does.

Strong words, intending to establish a wholly new sense of direction.

The Share Foundation has first-hand experience of the need for this change of direction. Throughout the past one-year-plus of this new Labour government, the charity has been pushing hard for the automatic release of HMRC-allocated Child Trust Funds when their young adult owners reach 21, using the key National Insurance number identifier in order to require account providers to deliver these funds through payroll, welfare benefit or student loan channels.

For those unfamiliar with the Child Trust Fund, it was established by the previous Labour Government of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, so that every child born in the United Kingdom between September 2002 and early January 2011 has a ‘starter capital account’. If parents didn't activate their voucher in order to open the child's account by their first birthday, HMRC did so — 28.4% of accounts were opened this way. More than half of these HMRC-allocated accounts were for low-income families, for whom the Government made an initial contribution of double the standard level. For these low-income young people who are now over 21, their accounts are typically worth nearly £3,000, and there are already a quarter of a quarter of a billion pounds worth of their accounts lying unclaimed.

The Share Foundation has prompted two sets of formal questions to be asked in the House of Lords over the past year and a half; each of these were batted away by a reticent Inland Revenue. Following a meeting with civil servants at HM Treasury in January, it then took a further six months to get a meeting with Economic Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds, following advice that ‘ministers would have to decide’ on this matter. The meeting eventually took place on 8th July, following which the charity received another non-committal message with a reference to having to use ‘existing legislation’.

However, Emma Reynolds has now moved from HM Treasury to head up DEFRA as a result of the re-shuffle, so it looks like it may be necessary to start all over again.

It is extraordinary that such a landmark scheme established by a Labour government can be frustrated in its delivery in this way, especially when there is no cost to the current Government. If no action is taken, there will be nearly £1 billion owed to low-income young people aged 21 or over by the end of this Parliament, denying them the resources they need — and possess — to get started in adult life.

This example of non-delivery, featuring the extent of low-income-owned Child Trust Funds which are invisible to  their young adult owners and therefore unclaimed, is symptomatic of a Government which has got stuck in the mud of inactivity: saying lots, but doing little. Why is this?

The answer probably lies in the same Civil Service mindset towards inaction that was so effectively displayed in the TV series, ‘Yes Minister’. It is said that Margaret Thatcher developed a real affinity for this programme, but she demonstrated in her twelve years in power that it is possible to break its stranglehold.

There are some encouraging signs in the new line-up of Government ministers. The first emerged several days before the Angela Rayner debacle, in the move of Darren Jones from HM Treasury to No. 10.

This may have been necessitated by Sir Keir Starmer’s rather premature commitment to Rachel Reeves earlier in the year, that she would remain Chancellor of the Exchequer for a long, long time. It wouldn't be surprising if much of the inactivity at HM Treasury has its roots in Rachel Reeves’ willingness to be led by her civil service team and HM Revenue and Customs. Having spent time working at the Bank of England before entering politics, she would be well-accustomed to their professional reticence: and she was certainly aware of the risk of following the break-out approach of Liz Truss during her short period as Prime Minister in Autumn 2022.

Therefore, in what is almost a reverse take-over in comparison with Dominic Cummings’ invasion of HM Treasury from No. 10 at the start of Boris Johnson's time in power, Sir Keir Starmer may have moved Darren Jones to No. 10 in order to enable the Prime Minister to exercise more influence over the Government's financial and economic policy.

If this is the case, we would welcome it at Share Radio, particularly if it makes a start to unwinding Attleean universality more likely. Last week’s commentary, ‘Government Bond markets risk meltdown’, spelt out graphically the consequences of seventy-five years of socialist-inspired universality: we urgently need to move towards a more egalitarian form of capitalism, which is not currently part of any UK political party offering. For all the posturing of Reform, at its heart it is a creed of narrow self-interest with the same model as Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party appears lost, without any sense of direction at present.

There is, therefore, still the opportunity for Sir Keir and Darren Jones to shift the dial of Labour Party strategy away from socialist universality, as we called for during the 2024 general election.

So, following the appointment of Lucy Rigby KC as the third Economic Secretary to HM Treasury during the past year, what is the prospect of delivering £1 billion-worth of Child Trust Funds to their rightful young-adult, low-income owners by the end of this parliament? The jury is out on that question — and this could literally be the case, as current alternatives for unlocking these funds include a process similar to ‘Class Action’ in the United States: in the UK, it's called ‘Amicus Curiae’.

However, there would be something quite bizarre about having to resort to court action in order to enable one Labour Government’s policy of inter-generational rebalancing to be fulfilled by its successor. There are some former Labour ministers such as Lord Blunkett who fully understand the need for action. We must just hope that Sir Keir’s determination to deliver will take effect in this important area of breaking the cycle of deprivation.

But it's a new team in place and, with a clear direction from their boss, let's see if they can deliver.

Gavin Oldham OBE

Share Radio