The Chancellor ignored questions about whether households and businesses were set to face another set of tax rises in October, following his first major speech in Coventry.

Mr Healey laid out his plans to focus on boosting growth “in more places” and stressed the importance of securing the public finances. In response to questions from the media, he promised the government would keep to its 2024 manifesto pledges ruling out hikes to income tax, VAT and national insurance.

He added: “You were trying to take me on to questions of tax, questions that are part of anticipating the Budget I will deliver on Oct 28. And I say to you: look, if I respond to speculation now, that will only fuel more speculation. And it’s quite right, and every Chancellor will say, that’s for the Budget. And I’ll set out my plans and the future route for the Government, for this country, at that Budget.”

In his speech, he said that growth was “indivisible” from fiscal stability, explaining that higher growth would be the UK’s “sustainable pathway out of indebtedness and into prosperity.”

Mr Healey also backed promises made by former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to cut business administration costs by 25% by 2030 and reform planning rules to boost production of nuclear energy. He also revealed plans to launch a review into railway costs and to re-write Treasury rules to prioritise long-term investment in public infrastructure.

The Chancellor revealed plans to put devolution at the centre of his first Budget, to encourage growth “in more places” beyond London. It remains unclear whether this will include Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“The next chapter of Britain’s growth story will be written in more places. That’s not sentimentality, that is supply-side economics. A transport bottleneck in South Yorkshire is too often invisible from Whitehall, but it can have a real impact on economic growth and on business investment decisions.

“That’s why, at the Budget, I will set out a roadmap to fiscal devolution, a permanent transfer of power and resources from Whitehall to our regions, with greater business rates retention for local councils and strategic authorities, grants from central government replaced by a share of local income tax for every mayoral strategic authority beginning in 2028.

“London, of course, is our powerhouse, but if our city regions could emulate the success of those in France or Germany, growth in our country would be transformed.”

Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith said that “warm words about growth will not make growth a reality or cover up the enormous damage” from previous tax rises on businesses and households.

“Healey failed to end uncertainty by ruling out more tax rises, failed to set out a serious plan to reform welfare, and failed to commit to funding defence properly – the very issue he resigned over as defence secretary.

“Even as Jaguar Land Rover cuts jobs, he offered no pause to Labour’s job-destroying employment red tape and no measures to get ruinously high energy bills down.”