Henham Strategy

Rachel Reeves has today delivered the second fiscal event of this Parliament. The Chancellor’s fiscal headroom – the £9.9bn of breathing space between spending commitments and breaking her self-imposed rules – had been wiped out by lower than expected growth and higher borrowing costs, leaving Reeves with a shortfall of £4.1bn.    Through a combination of welfare cuts, departmental savings, and higher growth projections beyond 2025, the Chancellor has restored her £9.9bn fiscal headroom in 2029/30. But with big uncertainties not factored into today’s projections – including US tariffs and the implications of the Employment Rights Bill – the Government clearly faces an uphill battle to deliver on its central growth mission.    A few thoughts on today's announcements from our new Director of Public Affairs Alex Dismore and former Labour frontbench MP Sam Tarry below.

Rachel Reeves has today delivered the second fiscal event of this Parliament. The Chancellor’s fiscal headroom – the £9.9bn of breathing space between spending commitments and breaking her self-imposed rules – had been wiped out by lower than expected growth and higher borrowing costs, leaving Reeves with a shortfall of £4.1bn.    Through a combination of welfare cuts, departmental savings, and higher growth projections beyond 2025, the Chancellor has restored her £9.9bn fiscal headroom in 2029/30. But with big uncertainties not factored into today’s projections – including US tariffs and the implications of the Employment Rights Bill – the Government clearly faces an uphill battle to deliver on its central growth mission.    A few thoughts on today's announcements from our new Director of Public Affairs Alex Dismore and former Labour frontbench MP Sam Tarry below.

We are absolutely delighted to announce that Alex Dismore has joined Henham Strategy as our new Director of Public Affairs. Alex brings a wealth of experience in public policy and strategic communications and we are thrilled to have him on board. Welcome, Alex! 🎉   #growth #onwardsandupwards #starhire

It looks like our MD spent his weekend swapping pitch decks for getting pitch-decked. If only his rugby skills were on a par with his political networking…

The Government has today published its landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill, set to rewrite the planning system and streamline decision-making. With thanks to Andrew Lewin, MP for Welwyn Hatfield, for his contributions. If you want to learn more about how the Bill could impact your organisation, do get in touch.

We are delighted to announce that Henham Strategy has been selected for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme which is targeted at some of the most dynamic businesses around the UK.   The programme is run by Goldman Sachs with the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and the Aston Centre for Growth at Aston University and is designed to help small businesses unlock their full growth potential.   2025 is shaping up to be a good year!

There has been lots happening this week in housing and planning, both in Government and closer to home.   This week, in an evidence session to the Homes, Communities & Local Government Committee, the Secretary of State Angela Rayner confirmed that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will be introduced to Parliament in March. As the Bill progresses through Parliament, we will be helping clients to understand what it means for them and their operations.   We’ll also be considering whether and how this new piece of legislation will help to address the UK’s housebuilding crisis. We were lucky to have former Chief Planning Officer Steve Quartermain CBE come and talk to us on Thursday about the various pieces of primary legislation that governments have introduced on planning – did you know that of the nine pieces of legislation since 1947, six of those have been introduced since 2008?   Yet despite repeated efforts by a number of governments, the planning system remains a political hot topic. Legislation from the early 2000s has added to the statute books, but not necessarily made it work better – and it begs the question, is more legislation the answer? 

Just two days to go til applications close in our latest recruitment round. Give yourself every chance of making 2025 a brilliant year by applying for a role at Henham!

We are not quite switching off for Christmas yet but it's definitely the time of year to be looking back at the last 12 months, perhaps with a mulled wine in hand... 🙋♂️ 🙋♀️ Henham Strategy has attracted some fantastic people in 2024. Nick Glover has come into the business to lead much of our local growth work and to head up our #Midlands presence; Camille Cross is overseeing events work for clients and Henham alike as well as working on ops with our new brand new Head of Office Alexia Cachia; we have continued to pick the creme de la creme of the grad pool with Iona Clark joining us a researcher and Celia Clark has wowed colleagues and clients alike since she joined and was recently promoted to Senior Consultant. Speaking of promotions, it's been great to see Anna Howard and Bea T. become Senior Researchers this year and to see James Antell become Associate Director. We have also just appointed a new Director of Public Affairs who will be starting with us in the new year. Exciting times. 🌹 🕴 We have got stuck into working with the new Labour Government. With our deep expertise in housing & planning, local growth & devolution, energy & net zero we feel like much of our work is right in the sweet spot of what this Government cares about. Investment and wider economic growth are also topics we have been working on for years, giving us and our clients a major advantage on these issues. We have also been really well supported by our network of Labour advisers - all former MPs, Mayors and councillors. 🏆 🎖️ We have had some fantastic new business wins, reinforcing our strengths in certain areas and taking us into new sectors such as data centres. We are grateful to everyone who has put their faith in us this year for the first time - and to former clients who have come back to us when they've needed help. 🛜 💼 We can say with absolute confidence that we have delivered huge amounts of value for our clients across the year. We always pride ourselves on how client-centric we are as a business, taking the time to really understand what clients want and need and then working tirelessly to achieve that. Repeat business and enduring relationships reflect that and we've had plenty of both in 2024. 🆕 🆕 What does 2025 hold? Well a new Director of Public Affairs for one (see above) as well as new clients confirmed in recent days. We will be kept busy because of the recent Devolution White Paper and Clean Power Plan, legislation on these topics as well as the Planning & Infrastructure Bill. There will be much to do ahead of Phase 2 of the SR and many of our clients will be throwing themselves into the growth agenda and other 'missions'. We will continue to build out our regional presence and to work with certain clients on international opportunities. But the main thrust will be, of course, to continue to deliver an exceptional service for Henham's clients. After all, why change a winning formula? Happy Christmas one and all! 🎅 🎄

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