There is no doubt this was an expensive intervention, but doing nothing was not an option

Cast your mind back just four weeks ago. We had daily warnings of extreme energy prices to come. Corner shops to factories predicting carnage. Business groups fearing mass unemployment. Entire livelihoods were on the line.

Make no mistake, this was a very real prospect for our country. No government with any conscience would ever let that happen. We had to act, and we did.

With Putin knowing that the tide is turning in Ukraine and is lashing out, we could not let his weaponisation of gas harm our country in that way. So, within days of taking office, the new government moved at great speed to announce the Energy Price Guarantee. That protection starts now.

We promised help was coming, and help has indeed arrived. From Saturday, your government is limiting the amount energy suppliers can charge for gas and electricity. While analysts predicted £6,500 annual energy bills from next spring, we are holding down the price at an average of £2,500. Not just this winter, but next winter too. Two years of significant government support to protect our people. And the added benefit of this scheme is that it is expected to lower our headline rate of inflation by five percentage points. A single policy that will ease wider cost of living pressures across the board.

In addition, let us not forget the additional £400 payment on its way now. Or the £1,200 in targeted payments for pensioners and those on low incomes. For businesses too, help is on its way. Thanks to our upcoming intervention, a local pub could save £3,100 a month, cutting their bills by 40 per cent. This is a significant support package to shield millions of families and businesses from the devastating price hikes unleashed by Putin.

There is no doubt that this is an expensive intervention, but what choice did we have? Think about the cost to the British economy of mass unemployment, a collapse in consumer spending, and viable businesses going to the wall. We are talking long-term economic scarring the likes of which we have not seen in peacetime. Doing nothing was not an option. The price of inaction would have been far greater than the cost of this scheme.

But there is a wider point here too. High energy costs are also a major brake on growth - a stubborn and persistent puzzle we need to crack. Low growth makes it much harder to pay for public services. That raises the overall tax burden, which in turn reduces the incentives to work and returns on investment. Without an immediate intervention, Britain was heading towards a 70-year high tax burden. The path we were on was clearly unsustainable.

In an attempt to reverse this worrying trend, I announced our Growth Plan last week - a new approach to deliver higher productivity, lower inflation and raised living standards. We need to stick to the plan. Cutting taxes boosts growth. Reforming the economy to increase the amount of goods and services we produce lowers costs.

But in addressing those challenges, we must not lose sight of our commitment to fiscal sustainability. The UK has the second lowest debt to GDP of any major advanced economy. Just as we did during the pandemic, it is right that the Government steps in to protect our people and businesses. That is why the next phase of our plan on November 23 is so important.

The Medium-Term Fiscal Plan will set out a credible plan to get debt falling as a share of GDP in the medium term, with new fiscal rules and a commitment to spending discipline. And this will be alongside a full forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility.

The British taxpayer expects their government to work as efficiently and effectively and possible, and we will deliver on that expectation. Not all the measures we announced last week will be universally popular. But we had to do something different. We had no other choice.

A new tax was set to be applied on incomes next April. Corporation tax was set to increase by a third. Stamp Duty was penalising aspiring homeowners. All while Britain faced the toxic triple shock of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a painful hangover from Covid-19, and rocketing energy prices pushing up the wider cost of living.

We needed to help people and take steps to build a stronger economy able to compete with our international peers. That is why we cut income tax, abolished the upcoming health and social care levy and reduced National Insurance. We lifted 200,000 out of paying Stamp Duty altogether, froze Alcohol Duty, and put rocket boosters under investment reliefs to help start-ups and scale-ups.

But reducing the tax burden is just one small part of our plan. We are also going to accelerate 100 major infrastructure projects through new legislation to get Britain building again. We are going to create Investment Zones across the UK, with an unprecedented set of tax incentives and liberalised planning rules for business to invest, build, and create jobs. And over the coming weeks, the Government will set out a whole series of supply-side reforms to remove those stubborn barriers that have held the British economy back for years.

Attracting global talent will drive productivity and innovation. Reducing business red tape will let companies grow and create jobs. And we know the rising cost of childcare can be a barrier to people re-joining the labour market – a waste of talent and a drain on our productivity.

Even in the face of extreme volatility in global markets, with major currencies wrestling an incredibly strong US dollar, we will show financial markets and investors that our plan is sound, credible and will work to drive growth.

By combining our immediate energy support with bold action to reset the fundamentals of the UK economy, we are helping households and businesses today – and putting the United Kingdom on a more prosperous, competitive path for years to come.