The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has vowed to cut back regulation in the UK financial sector in a bid to unlock growth. Her plans include loosening rules on the financial sector, increasing innovation, and allowing lenders to offer mortgages at more than 4.5 times a buyer’s income. She described the sector as the “crown jewel” of the UK economy, and promised to unleash its potential. “If what she’s suggesting is, ‘Let’s have a big financial sector and that’s great for the economy,’ the evidence doesn’t really stack up. We’ve had a really big financial sector through a lot of that time – and we’ve got underinvestments.