Jeremy Hunt

You can look at other countries.

You can look at Germany or Japan, where they have actually evened out opportunities across the whole country.

There is no difference in the standard of living between Tokyo and Osaka.

or between Munich and Berlin.

And even France, the difference, as Robert was saying, between Lyon and Paris is half that between London and Manchester.

So other countries have done this.

We can absolutely do this.

But we've got some things that none of those other countries have got.

In the age of AI, we've got some amazing things happening right here in the UK.

So I don't think this is a time to lose hope.

I think it's a time to actually say, look, these problems are...

Although if you'd been buying property five years ago, you'd have done far better buying it in Millsborough than in London.

Correct.

And I think it's important, though, to do this in a way that is about substance and not about spin.

You know, when I was in government, we said we're going to focus on the cost of living.

Keir Starmer said he's going to focus on the cost of living.

And normally you'll get a kind of gimmicky announcement at a budget about reducing electricity bills by this or reducing, you know, another bill by that.

There's too much gimmicks on all sides in politics.

And the truth is that the things that would unlock economic growth, like empowering regional mayors to sort out problems, like properly transforming the welfare system so that people have incentives to take jobs and not remain parked on welfare, like sorting out the planning rules so we can actually get stuff built –

Those are the things that would really make a difference in terms of transforming the prospects for families in this country.