Is Rachel Reeves becoming the new Liz Truss?

[Rockets]

2.5 Public sector pay

At SR21 the government set overall budgets in cash terms on an assumption that pay for public sector workforces would increase by around 3%, 2%, and 2% respectively in the three years covered.

Pay for most frontline public sector workers including NHS staff, teachers, police, armed forces and prison officers is set based on recommendations from independent Pay Review Bodies (PRBs). These recommendations have responded to higher levels of wage growth across the wider economy and so actual pay awards across PRB workforces increased by an average of 5% in 2022-23, and 6% in 2023-24.^{[footnote 11]}

This – alongside some exceptional pay increases agreed outside the PRB process and pay awards across the Civil Service – has meant that public spending on pay is expected to be around £11-12 billion higher across central government departments in 2024-25 than it was projected to be at SR21, even before accounting for 2024-25 pay awards.^{[footnote 12]}

[Sephiroth]

That doesn’t contextualise it’s part in the 22 billion black hole at all 

However

 

“

The £21.9 billion was a net figure. Gross additional pressures totalling £35.3 billion were identified by the Treasury, and approximately £13.4 billion of these pressures were then offset by a combination of reserve funds and other allowances.

The additional pressures identified were as follows:

• 2024-25 public sector pay awards (£9.4bn) 

”

[Rockets]

It’s from the Treasury report…https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fixing-the-foundations-public-spending-audit-2024-25/fixing-the-foundations-public-spending-audit-2024-25-html

 

1. Executive summary

On 8 July, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that she had instructed Treasury officials to undertake a rapid audit of public spending. This document sets out the outcome of the audit, the immediate action the government is taking in response, and the long-term measures being introduced to restore public spending control.

The audit carried out by the Treasury shows that the forecast overspend on departmental spending is expected to be £21.9 billion above the resource departmental expenditure limit (RDEL) totals set by the Treasury at Spring Budget 2024.^{[footnote 1]},^{[footnote 2]}

 

[Earl Aelfheah]

17 hours ago, Rockets said:

But, for example, I probably wouldn't have given junior doctors a 22% pay rise and then claimed that as part of the 22bn black hole "inherited" by this government and then told farmers and pensioners to suck it up because of said 22bn black hole...but, to be fair, farmers and pensioners didn't help the election campaign did they so I presume they weren't owed their payday?! 😉

 

 

So when you were out on your doorstep clapping for the NHS, what you really felt was that they deserved to watch their pay shrink in order to protect people being gifted multimillion pound estates from paying any tax on it?

BTW, the 22% over 2 years, only brings their pay back to just below the level it was in 2009 in real terms.

Edited 11 hours ago by Earl Aelfheah

[Rockets]

Earl, you're doing it again.....

[Earl Aelfheah]

Doing what exactly?

[jazzer]

Robber Reeves strikes AGAIN. 

"Royal Mail threatens to hike stamp prices again in more misery for UK households"

Royal Mail has warned it will have to raise prices after taking a £120m hit from Rachel Reeves’s Budget tax raid.

Royal Mail warns of price rises after £120m hit from Reeves’s tax raid

 

Edited 6 hours ago by jazzer

[Rockets]

Fascinating The Rest is Politics questions this week and they deal with the farmer issue as the first question. Rory Stewart has a fascinating insight into the issues here (and he knows what he is talking about from his work at DEFRA) - about the high cost of land and the low returns from farming and how this is anything but a few farms being affected.

Well worth a listen for those that want to hear both sides of the argument.

Edited 5 hours ago by Rockets

[CPR Dave]

The new tax rules don't just apply to farmers. 

They apply to every single family owned business. 

If you've created a small family run business and you pass it on when you die your children will have to pay the new inheritance tax. Doesn't matter if its a farm or a clothes shop or a fruit and veg business,  all of them are caught.

[Rockets]

William, a farmer, farming with both his parents who are in their 80s, summed up the nonsensical approach the government is taking on farmers on Question Time tonight when he said: "At the point at which inheritance tax becomes due you aren't in a position to pay it without selling an income bearing asset which then destabilises the very entity you have built up to create a profit from".

He summed it up beautifully when he closed: "If this policy were to persist it will materially and existentially destabilise our [the county's] farming business "

The biggest clap of the programme came from the ex-NFU president who accused the government panelist: "Why aren't you going after the wealthy investors, the private equity businesses that are buying up land, planting trees, offsetting their green conscience. You've done nothing to them. They're the ones driving up land prices. These farmers do not want to sell their asset....they want to invest in it and this is going to stifle investment. Who is going to want to invest in new buildings as that is going to drive up the value of the estate."

"You're going after the wrong people".

It's amazing that the government have been daft enough to pick a fight with farmers - Alastair Campbell commented that he did react with shock when it was announced in the budget as, he said, you don't start a fight with farmers.