Minister refuses to deny reports Rachel Reeves considering tax increase for landlords in budget – UK politics live | Politics
Minister refuses to comment on reports of tax increase for landlords
A Government minister refused to be drawn on reports the Treasury is considering a tax increase on landlords for Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.
Stephen Morgan, education minister, told Times Radio and Sky News he was unable to comment on speculation which was reported in the Times on Wednesday that national insurance will be imposed on rental income.
According to the PA news agency, Morgan instead said he wanted the budget to be rooted in “Labour values”.
He told Times Radio:
Obviously taxation policies are a matter for the chancellor of the exchequer, and she will set out more detail in the budget later this year. I want to make sure that our budget is based on our Labour values, and that is what Rachel Reeves will deliver.
It’s not for me to comment on speculation. Our focus is on driving growth in the economy and delivering for working people up and down the country.
Speaking later to Sky News, Morgan said:
We’re focused on growing the economy. Fixing the foundations of the country, restoring public service and that decade of national renewal.
I’m afraid you will have to wait until the budget later this year.
It was reported on Tuesday that the cost of UK government borrowing had jumped to near a 27-year high, piling pressure on Reeves to reveal how she will tackle the deficit in the public finances before the autumn budget.
In other developments, the court of appeal will hear applications for permission to appeal against the Epping Bell hotel ruling from the hotelier and the Home Office from 10am.
Here is a short summary of other key events:
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Keir Starmer has appointed the outspoken founder of Octopus Energy as an adviser, with a remit to challenge government thinking. Greg Jackson has joined the Cabinet Office board, an influential core of government advisers, as a non-executive member.
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The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, will boycott King Charles’s state banquet held in honour of Donald Trump to protest against the US president’s failure to intervene decisively to end the war in Gaza. Davey, who is invited to the dinner for Trump’s state visit to the UK, said to turn down an invitation from the king went against all his instincts and that it was a deeply serious move to refuse to attend.
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Children and young people are being overdiagnosed with mental health conditions in a society that has lost sight of the reality that child development is “messy and uneven”, the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said. He is the latest senior figure to add his voice to calls for a radical overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system in England.
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A Reform council leader’s decision to ban his councillors from engaging with a prominent local newspaper is a “massive attack on local democracy” and a sign of things to come should the party form the next government, the outlet’s editor has warned. In an unprecedented move, Nottinghamshire county council’s four-month-old Reform administration has said it will no longer deal with the Nottingham Post, its online edition and a team of BBC-funded local democracy journalists that it manages.
Key events
Government funding for free meals and activities during summer holidays for low-income families scheme extended
Government funding for a programme which offers children from low-income families free meals and activities during the school holidays will be extended, reports the PA news agency.
The Department for Education (DfE) has said working families on free school meals could save more than £800 a year thanks to its investment into holiday clubs. According to the PA news agency, £600m is being invested to extend the holiday activity and food (HAF) programme – which funds councils to provide holiday childcare, activities and food for children eligible for free school meals – for another three years.
It comes as working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours a week of funded childcare for children older than nine months from Monday. With just days to go until the full rollout, education secretary Bridget Phillipson has called on eligible parents in England to “take up” the offer.
The expansion of funded childcare – which was introduced by the Conservative government – began being rolled out in England in April last year for working parents of two-year-olds. Working parents of children older than nine months are now also able to access 15 hours of funded childcare a week during term time, before the full rollout of 30 hours a week to all eligible families from next week.
The HAF programme – for school-age children from reception to year 11 – helps parents to make savings of more than £300 a year, the DfE said.
In July, the Coram Family and Childcare charity called for the HAF programme to be maintained after March 2026 to ensure disadvantaged children have childcare during school holidays.
Andrew Forsey, national director of Feeding Britain, said:
Today’s news will be welcomed by hundreds of thousands of parents across England. The support provided to children from lower incomes through the holiday activities fund eases the pressure on family budgets during the school holidays, enhances their access to enriching and physical activities, and gives them a healthy meal each day during the school holidays.
This delivers a raft of benefits for children and their families, so it is excellent news that the government is extending this provision for a further three years.
Phillipson said:
Giving every child the best start in life is my number one priority, which is why we are delivering on our commitment to provide hundreds of thousands of children with 30 hours government-funded early education.
Whether it’s to save up to £7,500 a year, support parents to get back to work or reduce the pressure on grandparents who so often have to step in, the benefits are widespread.
The offer is just around the corner, and so I’m urging every eligible parent who wants it, to take it up.
Reform council’s Nottingham Post ban a ‘massive attack on local democracy’
Michael Savage
A Reform council leader’s decision to ban his councillors from engaging with a prominent local newspaper is a “massive attack on local democracy” and a sign of things to come should the party form the next government, the outlet’s editor has warned.
In an unprecedented move, Nottinghamshire county council’s four-month-old Reform administration has said it will no longer deal with the Nottingham Post, its online edition and a team of BBC-funded local democracy journalists that it manages.
Nigel Farage is already facing calls to intervene in the row, with local MPs accusing Reform of “rank hypocrisy” over its previous claims to support free speech and transparency. Lee Anderson, the Reform MP for Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, has said he will join in the boycott.
In an interview with the Guardian, Natalie Fahy, the editor of the Nottingham Post and Nottinghamshire Live, said the ban had come from Mick Barton, the county council’s leader, after a story about plans for a restructuring of local government. She said it was a worrying sign of Reform’s approach to the free press.
“It’s a massive attack on local democracy,” she said.
I’ve been a journalist for 20 years. We have had our ups and downs with all kinds of councils. We managed to get along fine, because most elected officials accept this is par for the course. You are going to get some negative press. What you don’t do is shut the shop up.
This is a worrying sign of potentially things to come if Reform wins the next election. What you’re seeing here in Nottinghamshire is probably a microcosm of how it will be across the whole of the UK if Nigel Farage becomes prime minister. You are just going to see this kind of shutting down of questioning.
They need to be answerable to the people who elected them. We don’t take a political stance. We’re not anti-Reform. We’re just trying to find out what’s going on.
The move has already caused concern among other parties. The Lib Dems have written to Farage to demand that he step in to reverse the “dangerous and chilling” decision. They also suggested that the move may have breached local government’s code of conduct, which calls on elected officials to “submit themselves to the scrutiny”.
The UK, France and Germany are expected to announce on Thursday that they will reimpose sweeping sanctions on Iran for failing to readmit UN inspectors into all of its nuclear sites.
The decision, under consideration for months, is likely to provoke the worst crisis in Iran’s relations with the west since Israel’s attacks on the country’s nuclear sites in June. Iran is already preparing countermeasures.
The planned reimposition of the sanctions, contained in six suspended UN resolutions, will start on 18 October when the original nuclear deal signed in 2015 expires.
The move by the three European powers – known as the E3 – cannot be vetoed by permanent members of the UN security council such as Russia and China.
The E3 is demanding Iran fully readmit inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Europe also wants details on what happened to the estimated 400kg stockpile of Iran’s highly enriched uranium after Israel’s attacks in June.
Confirmation of the partial return of IAEA inspectors on Wednesday was met with protests by officials in Tehran, who claim the strict preconditions they set have been breached.
The European countries still hope the expected formal notification to the UN that they are triggering the snapback of the sanctions will provoke Iranian concessions and further diplomacy.
Fiona Harvey
Heat pumps could save households hundreds of pounds a year on heating bills, if the government took simple measures to reform the energy system, an analysis has found.
The average household’s heating bills could be roughly halved, saving about £375 a year with a heat pump instead of a gas boiler, if steps were taken to make electricity cheaper.
These steps include ending green levies on electrical heating, reforming how electricity is priced, and taking measures to prevent gas power companies from jacking up their profits, according to an analysis by the thinktank E3G.
Heat pumps, which run on electricity, are more efficient than gas boilers and will be essential to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions. However, they are more expensive to run in the UK than they need to be, because of the way the UK’s privatised energy system is managed.
At present, homeowners with heat pumps who are on the right tariff and have well-insulated homes should save money. But some homeowners who replace gas boilers with electric heat pumps may get no saving, or even a cost increase. Their average annual heating bill is likely to be about £920, according to E3G, compared with £820 for homes with a gas boiler.
This discrepancy has held back installations, and led anti-net zero campaigners to decry heat pumps and claim that policies to promote them should be discarded. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has publicly voiced disquiet on the issue, while the government chief scientist has admitted that the lack of cost saving currently seen by some households was a problem.
But with a few measures, the government could transform the prospects for heat pumps and save money for millions of households, the E3G analysis has shown.
The Home Office’s bid to challenge the decision to temporarily block the owner of the Bell hotel in Epping from housing asylum seekers is to be heard at the court of appeal on Thursday.
Last week, Mr Justice Eyre granted an interim injunction to Epping Forest district council, stopping the hotel’s owner, Somani Hotels, from using the Essex hotel to accommodate asylum seekers beyond 12 September. The authority asked for an injunction to be granted after the hotel became the focal point of several protests and counter-protests in recent weeks.
The Home Office and Somani Hotels will both seek to challenge the ruling at a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, with the department also in an attempt to appeal against Eyre’s decision not to let it intervene in the case. The hearing before Lord Justice Bean, Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb is due to start at 10am.
Helena Horton
Former prime minister Liz Truss has appeared on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast to give her views on the current economic situation in the UK.
Asked whether she would join Reform, she said she was “not really thinking about party politics at the moment because my whole experience of being in government was that the power was not in the hands of the politicians”.
Truss added that a Farage government cannot work without an institutional shake up:
Even if Nigel Farage gets elected in 2029, if the bureaucracy is not changed, if there is not fundamental change of how the UK is wrong, nothing will change.
On the NHS, she said:
The cult is wearing thin. There is, has, been a cult. People are recognising its failures. I don’t think the American system is anything to aspire to but if you look at countries like Germany, France [and] Japan, they manage to achieve better outcomes with similar levels of spending. I think everyone in Britain recognises that it’s not working as it is currently constituted.
On the health system being free at the point of use, Truss added:
It costs you in other ways.
Octopus Energy founder appointed as UK government adviser
Jillian Ambrose
Keir Starmer has appointed the outspoken founder of Octopus Energy as an adviser, with a remit to challenge government thinking.
Greg Jackson has joined the Cabinet Office board, an influential core of government advisers, as a non-executive member.
The announcement comes weeks after ministers ruled out his plan to split the national energy market into regional zones, which would have meant users in different areas would pay different rates for their electricity.
The tech entrepreneur, who has long had links to the Labour party, responded to that decision by saying he would “respectfully disagree”.
Jackson failed to win over ministers after a long and controversial campaign, in part because zonal pricing would have meant higher energy prices in the south-east of England and lower prices in Scotland.
He claimed that electricity prices that reflected local supply and demand dynamics would encourage heavy electricity users to relocate to areas that have more renewable energy generation such as Scotland and encourage renewables developers to base their projects closer to where their energy was needed.
Jackson is now expected to play an influential role in shaping how future government policies are implemented. His non-executive role is one of a number that are understood to have been introduced to bring in expertise from outside government to help civil servants gain a strategic perspective on policy decisions.
Jackson is expected to use his three-year term on the Cabinet Office board to push the government to modernise. The tech founder, who set up Octopus in 2015, has won respect in Westminster after building the energy supplier’s global reach to secure a valuation of £9bn for the company in less than a decade.
Property tax threat is slowing down housing market, say UK agents
Hilary Osborne
Speculation that the chancellor could announce new property taxes in her autumn budget is likely to slow down an already price-sensitive housing market, estate agents have said.
Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering a tax on the sale of homes over £500,000 and the removal of the capital gains tax exemption on primary residences above £1.5m as ways to boost income for the government.
The property website Zoopla said changes to the taxation of homes over £500,000 “may make some buyers consider a wait-and-see strategy. This covers those who may possibly save money on purchases under £500,000 and concern those buying over this level as well”.
It said a third of homes for sale were priced at more than £500,000, with London and the south-east of England in line to be most affected by a change.
The website’s latest monthly snapshot of the property market showed the number of sales agreed was up by 5% year on year in July and that average prices had risen by 1.3%.
One in 10 homes listed had been reduced in price, above the five-year average of 6% of homes. Homes that have been reduced are typically on the market for almost two and a half times longer than those that are priced well when they go on the market, Zoopla said.
Richard Donnell, an executive director at Zoopla, said:
Sellers need to understand local market conditions when considering how to market their home, setting the right price and how quickly they would like to sell. The risk of being too ambitious on price is your home taking more than twice as long to find a buyer, or not selling at all.
Ed Davey said “no disrespect is meant to the king” in his decision to boycott Donald’s Trump’s state banquet next month in a protest against the US president’s position on Gaza (see 8.59am BST).
The Liberal Democrat leader told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I think anyone who knows my approach to the monarchy, and to the king in particular, knows how much I respect him. I’ve written to him personally and the fact, as I say, that I’ve had to wrestle with it shows that no disrespect is meant to the king at all.
Announcing the boycott, the politician said he and his wife, Emily, had “prayed about it”.
He told the Today programme:
I am a Christian. My wife and I go to our local church, St Andrew’s and St Mark’s, very regularly. My faith is very important to me and to my wife and although you’re right, other people say religion doesn’t impact your politics, it does impact mine.
I don’t talk about it very much but in this moment I had to be very honest, I’ve thought and prayed about this, I really have.
Lib Dem leader to boycott king’s Trump banquet in protest over Gaza
Jessica Elgot
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, will boycott King Charles’s state banquet held in honour of Donald Trump to protest against the US president’s failure to intervene decisively to end the war in Gaza.
Davey, who is invited to the dinner for Trump’s state visit to the UK, said to turn down an invitation from the king went against all his instincts and that it was a deeply serious move to refuse to attend.
But he said he feared unless he took a stand over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the lack of pressure on Israel from the US government, no one would raise the issue during the president’s visit in late September.
Davey said:
Boycotting the state banquet is not something I ever wanted to do, but I believe it is the only way I can send a message to both Donald Trump and Keir Starmer that they cannot close their eyes and wish this away.
Trump’s state visit is an honour that has never previously been extended for a second time to a US president. Davey said he believed Keir Starmer was right to engage with Trump, but said it was vital that someone raised the issue of Gaza in a way that could not be ignored.
In a Guardian piece explaining his decision, Davey wrote:
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza must stop. The famine must end. The hostages must be returned home. There is one man, more than anyone else, who has the power to make it happen.
Donald Trump could do those things today if he chose to. He has more power than anyone else finally to force a ceasefire and put Israel and Palestine on the path to a lasting peace, with a two-state solution. But so far, he’s decided not to. Instead, he’s given Netanyahu his full support.
Minister refuses to comment on reports of tax increase for landlords
A Government minister refused to be drawn on reports the Treasury is considering a tax increase on landlords for Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.
Stephen Morgan, education minister, told Times Radio and Sky News he was unable to comment on speculation which was reported in the Times on Wednesday that national insurance will be imposed on rental income.
According to the PA news agency, Morgan instead said he wanted the budget to be rooted in “Labour values”.
He told Times Radio:
Obviously taxation policies are a matter for the chancellor of the exchequer, and she will set out more detail in the budget later this year. I want to make sure that our budget is based on our Labour values, and that is what Rachel Reeves will deliver.
It’s not for me to comment on speculation. Our focus is on driving growth in the economy and delivering for working people up and down the country.
Speaking later to Sky News, Morgan said:
We’re focused on growing the economy. Fixing the foundations of the country, restoring public service and that decade of national renewal.
I’m afraid you will have to wait until the budget later this year.
It was reported on Tuesday that the cost of UK government borrowing had jumped to near a 27-year high, piling pressure on Reeves to reveal how she will tackle the deficit in the public finances before the autumn budget.
In other developments, the court of appeal will hear applications for permission to appeal against the Epping Bell hotel ruling from the hotelier and the Home Office from 10am.
Here is a short summary of other key events:
-
Keir Starmer has appointed the outspoken founder of Octopus Energy as an adviser, with a remit to challenge government thinking. Greg Jackson has joined the Cabinet Office board, an influential core of government advisers, as a non-executive member.
-
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, will boycott King Charles’s state banquet held in honour of Donald Trump to protest against the US president’s failure to intervene decisively to end the war in Gaza. Davey, who is invited to the dinner for Trump’s state visit to the UK, said to turn down an invitation from the king went against all his instincts and that it was a deeply serious move to refuse to attend.
-
Children and young people are being overdiagnosed with mental health conditions in a society that has lost sight of the reality that child development is “messy and uneven”, the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said. He is the latest senior figure to add his voice to calls for a radical overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system in England.
-
A Reform council leader’s decision to ban his councillors from engaging with a prominent local newspaper is a “massive attack on local democracy” and a sign of things to come should the party form the next government, the outlet’s editor has warned. In an unprecedented move, Nottinghamshire county council’s four-month-old Reform administration has said it will no longer deal with the Nottingham Post, its online edition and a team of BBC-funded local democracy journalists that it manages.
