John Healey delivered his first address as Chancellor to Labour's party conference, which commentator Andrew Neil critiques as substantively weak and dominated by typical party conference rhetoric about "fresh hope" and industrial renewal. The speech failed to address concrete economic policy or explain how Labour will manage forthcoming fiscal challenges, despite the Budget being only a month away.

Neil notes that Healey struck a more serious tone only twice: when reassuring international lenders about fiscal discipline, and when framing welfare reform as a "moral duty." However, the speech remained vague on specifics, raising questions about whether Labour's leadership has agreed its economic approach. Neil particularly criticises the undefined concept of a "new age of industrialisation," pointing out that Britain's high industrial energy costs—£238 per megawatt-hour compared to £138 in Germany and £65 in America—make reindustrialisation implausible without significant policy changes. UK manufacturers paid £17 billion in energy costs in 2024; in the United States, this bill would have been £5 billion.