King’s Speech 2026 – key announcements for business

The King’s Speech and the State Opening of the UK Parliament took place yesterday with the legislative priorities of the Labour government for the next parliamentary session being unveiled. Whilst literally spoken by the King himself, the speech is written by the government and outlines its plans. The full text of the King’s Speech is available here. You can read the Background Materials here which includes announcements of more bills than are directly referenced in the Speech. 

More than 30 bills were announced on a wide range of constitutional, social, political and economic issues, and it is not practical to list them all out.  For businesses operating in the UK, the more notable bills were as follows (with the government’s headline aim for each bill): 

• Civil Aviation Bill – to unlock the benefits of airport expansion;
• Clean Water Bill – to clean-up the water industry;
• Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill – to reform the leasehold system, including the capping of ground rents;
• Competition Reform Bill – to deliver further reforms to support the CMA’s operational transformation, make competition investigations faster and more predictable, reduce unnecessary burdens on businesses and ensure consumers benefit sooner, while protecting the CMA’s independence;
• Cyber Security and Resilience Bill – to improve the country’s defences against cyber-security threats;
• Energy Independence Bill – to scale-up homegrown renewable energy and protect living standards for the long-term;
• Enhancing Financial Services Bill – to deliver key parts of the Leeds Reforms set out by the Chancellor in 2025, modernise how the sector is regulated, enable it to grow and to lend more to businesses and make consumer protections fit for the digital age – all while maintaining high standards of regulation and oversight, supporting the UK’s position as a leading global financial centre;
• European Partnership Bill – to strengthen ties with the European Union;
• Highways (Financing) Bill – to enable roads to be built at pace including the Lower Thames Crossing;
• Northern Powerhouse Rail Bill – to deliver a fair deal for the North of England through Northern Powerhouse Rail;
• Nuclear Regulation Bill – to take forward recommendations of the Nuclear Regulatory Review and encourage a new era of British nuclear energy generation;
• Regulating for Growth Bill – to reduce the burden of unnecessary regulation through innovation;
• Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill – to tackle late payments; and
• Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill – to take all action necessary to safeguard the domestic production of steel.

The Speech represents an ambitious programme of legislation for this parliamentary session and we await the full text of the bills mentioned. 

However, the biggest issue surrounding this legislative programme is the fate of the Prime Minister himself, particularly following several resignations from his government, including potential leadership rival, the now former Health Secretary, Wes Streeting. Any change of Labour Party Leader and Prime Minister is likely to want to pursue their own, somewhat tweaked, legislative programme. It therefore waits to be seen whether this programme, as announced, ever actually makes it through parliament.