Jeremy Hunt

Damning report warns UK on course for second ‘lost decade’ ahead of Budget

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/damning-report-warns-uk-on-course-for-second-lost-decade-ahead-of-budget/

Tories devastating record set to continue unless Budget delivers ‘desperately needed measures’ to recover living standards

In a bleak assessment of the Tories track record, the 2020s are on course to be the ‘second lost decade’ in living standards, a leading charity has warned the Chancellor ahead of his Spring Budget announcement. 

Leading anti-poverty charity, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) published the damning report on Monday, warning that, without political intervention, this Wednesday’s budget risks condemning Britain to another decade of declining living standards. 

Based on current government spending plans, working families could be £1,900 a year worse off by 2029 than in 2021. While essentials are predicted to remain less affordable relative to post tax earnings until 2029.

The cutting analysis of the UK’s economic trajectory is a warning to Jeremy Hunt that if he fails to deliver immediate measures to support living standards in the coming budget, then this will be the result. 

Decisive intervention from policy makers is what the charity has urged, as it warned that many families will be poorer by the end of the 2020s than at the start. While the Chancellor must prioritise providing long-term economic security for households requiring “the right political will” to turn the situation around. 

Currently, post-tax earnings are £2,400 a year lower for the average working family than they were in 2021, while essential goods and services for the average family are £270 a year more expensive than at the beginning of 2021, the JRF research found.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/damning-report-warns-uk-on-course-for-second-lost-decade-ahead-of-budget/

Continue ReadingDamning report warns UK on course for second ‘lost decade’ ahead of Budget

Cross party group of MPs call for green Spring Budget to tackle ‘underinvestment crisis’

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https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4180633/cross-party-group-mps-green-spring-budget-tackle-underinvestment-crisis

Image: The Spring Budget is due to be delivered on 6 March 2024 | Credit: iStock

MPs from Labour, Lib Dems, Green Party, SNP, Plaid Cymru, and Alliance have jointly called for a green investment-friendly Spring Budget on Wednesday

A group of cross-party MPs and peers have called on the Chancellor to prioritise new public investment in net zero infrastructure and skills in this week’s Spring Budget, in a move they argue would help to “futureproof our economy and our energy system”.

In a letter addressed to Jeremy Hunt on Friday, Parliamentarians from across political divides urged the Chancellor to “use the forthcoming Spring Budget to address the ongoing underinvestment crisis the UK is facing” by funnelling more public spending to help deliver on net zero goals.

It also calls on the government to publish a Net Zero Investment Plan in order to “identify and close the gap between actual and required financial flows” and help catalyse increased investment from the private sector.

And the letter calls on the Treasury to work with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to set out a plan to ensure “every household has access to energy efficiency measures and fossil-free heat via a combination of grants and low-cost loans”.

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https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4180633/cross-party-group-mps-green-spring-budget-tackle-underinvestment-crisis

Continue ReadingCross party group of MPs call for green Spring Budget to tackle ‘underinvestment crisis’

‘Bolder action is needed:’ Anti-poverty campaigners issue home truths for the Chancellor ahead of Spring Budget

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/02/bolder-action-is-needed-anti-poverty-campaigners-issue-home-truths-for-the-chancellor-ahead-of-spring-budget/

‘Cost of living support may be receding but the tide of people not being able to afford life’s essentials is not. It is time we moved from stop-gaps to sustainable solutions.’

February 22, 2024, marked the last of the cost of living payments being sent out. The cash top-ups had been awarded to people receiving means-tested benefits, disability benefits, and pension credits, at regular intervals over the course of the cost of living crisis. They have been a lifeline for around eight million low-income families.

But with rising living costs driving disadvantaged households further into poverty, with prices still rising despite inflation easing, and food and energy remaining at extortionate levels, charities and experts have warned that the payments are not enough. They have expressed fears about what may happen if the government does not announce additional payments.

The final cost of living payment has renewed calls for the introduction of a system that is there whenever anyone falls on hard times, rather than being just a ‘stop gap’ solution.

Ahead of the Spring Budget on March 6, anti-poverty charities and campaigners are calling on the Chancellor for bolder action to tackle poverty during the cost of living crisis.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/02/bolder-action-is-needed-anti-poverty-campaigners-issue-home-truths-for-the-chancellor-ahead-of-spring-budget/

Continue Reading‘Bolder action is needed:’ Anti-poverty campaigners issue home truths for the Chancellor ahead of Spring Budget

Morning Star: Ever-increasing militarisation leaves us all poorer

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-ever-increasing-militarisation-leaves-us-all-poorer

IF THERE was one thing that British listeners should have picked up from Vladimir Putin’s interview last week, it was the intervention by Britain’s then prime minister Boris Johnson over Easter 2022.

Putin confirmed that, just prior to Johnson’s visit, a signed agreement had been reached ratified by the representatives of both Ukraine and Russia and counter-signed by France and Germany.

Johnson’s intervention caused Volodymyr Zelensky to back out of the agreement. Whether Johnson acted alone or on behalf of the US government, or elements within it, we do not know. But it is unlikely that Johnson would have acted without some sort of US sanction.

What we do know are the human consequences. According to the UN, just over a thousand civilians had lost their lives by April 2022. Since then 10 times that number have been killed and the same ratio is likely for the much higher level of military casualties.

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Jeremy Hunt’s May 2023 Budget found an extra £11bn for defence. For the forthcoming Budget still more money was being proposed over the weekend “to strengthen Britain’s defences in the Red Sea.” Britain remains the second biggest contributor to Nato after the US.

Yet Britain is a country that can no longer afford the basic infrastructure needed for clean water, rail transport or a national grid capable of connecting existing renewable capacity — let alone a viable health service and effective schooling.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-ever-increasing-militarisation-leaves-us-all-poorer

dizzy: I disagree with the contention: ” … it is unlikely that Johnson would have acted without some sort of US sanction.” It preseupposes that Johnson was measured in his behaviour when he was often poorly-briefed and out of control. [17/2/24 e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/06/boris-johnson-mistake-could-harm-case-for-nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-say-family ]

Continue ReadingMorning Star: Ever-increasing militarisation leaves us all poorer

Another Tory blunder: Sunak tax cuts have low impact on growth, Treasury told

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/another-tory-blunder-sunak-tax-cuts-have-low-impact-on-growth-treasury-told/

The revelations will undermine the Tory government’s claim that tax cuts are the way to turn around the economy

Treasury officials warned Rishi Sunak in late 2022 that tax cuts would have a ‘low impact’ on boosting economic growth, and yet despite this advice, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and the Tory government continue to prioritise tax cuts in a bid to boost the economy.

Treasury documents seen by Bloomberg reveal that incoming Prime Minister Sunak was told that ‘increasing high-skilled immigration and changing planning rules to build more homes would both have a “high impact” on the economy with a “low” fiscal cost.”

The revelations will undermine the Tory government’s claim that tax cuts are the way to turn around the economy, with Hunt planning tax cuts in the annual budget in March. Despite the advice of experts, Sunak and Hunt are placing tax cuts at the heart of the Tory election campaign.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/01/another-tory-blunder-sunak-tax-cuts-have-low-impact-on-growth-treasury-told/

Continue ReadingAnother Tory blunder: Sunak tax cuts have low impact on growth, Treasury told