Keir Starmer: 'I have every faith in my chancellor'
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Telegraph
29 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Miliband forced to pay solar farms to switch off
British solar farms have been paid to switch off for the first time as sunny days prompt a surge of clean power that could overwhelm the grid. The National Energy System Operator (Neso), which manages the UK's power grids and is overseen by Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has issued switch-off orders to solar facilities this year, new research reveals. Operators are paid to switch off when these orders are issued, with the extra cost added to consumer and business energy bills. The solar operators claiming compensation are understood to include some of the UK's biggest energy suppliers, such as EDF Renewables and Octopus Energy. These payments are common for wind farms, which generate more power than cables can cope with on particularly windy days. Solar farms have always had a much smaller output and were mostly built in the South, where grid connections are good. However, the rapid recent growth of solar farms means they too are now being asked to switch off. Neso has said such action was essential to maintaining the stability of the UK's power grids. Critics said it was the latest example of consumers facing extra costs to meet Mr Miliband's net zero targets. Such 'constraint payments' are already common with wind farms because so many have been built in areas such as northern Scotland or offshore, areas without grid capacity to carry the power they generate. So far this year, constraint payments have cost consumers £650m, according to the Wasted Wind website. The cost is added to energy bills. Overall 'balancing payments' could hit £8bn a year by 2030 without massive grid upgrades, according to Neso estimates. Such upgrades would also be extremely costly, with consumers liable. The revelation that solar farm owners are now also claiming constraint payments came from research by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), a charity that specialises in energy data. It found that five solar farms had been paid a total of £102,500 to reduce output by 3.6 gigawatt hours between February and June this year. John Constable, the charity's director, said the initial amounts were small but were very likely to rapidly grow, as happened with constraint payments to wind. He said: 'Britain's energy bills are surging and everyone wants to know why. Our work shows that subsidies are a key cause and constraint payments are a critical and growing factor. 'The UK has been subsidising renewables since 2002 and has spent over £200bn of bill payers' cash – equivalent to nearly £8,000 per household.
Telegraph
29 minutes ago
- Telegraph
HMRC accused of cutting secret loan charge deal with large companies
The tax office gave secret 85pc discounts to large companies involved in the loan charge scandal, documents s. A Freedom of Information request has suggested that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reached generous settlement deals with multi-million pound companies who used payroll loan schemes. Meanwhile, independent contractors were hit with life-changing bills. The agreements came to light after a campaigner submitted a Freedom of Information request which was then revealed in Parliament by Conservative MP, Greg Smith, during Treasury Questions on Tuesday. HMRC said it does not recognise the claims. MPs said the revelation was 'staggering'. Sarah Olney, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, said: 'It is unacceptable that victims have been consistently refused the justice they deserve while large companies received settlements a decade ago. 'This information shows the need for a proper, independent inquiry that looks at the whole loan charge scandal.' The loan charge is a controversial law that left 50,000 self-employed workers with crippling tax bills and has been linked to 10 suicides. It was introduced in 2017 to target contractors who were paid through non-taxable loans rather than salaries. The loan schemes date back to the 1990s, and were often marketed as HMRC-compliant by respected tax advisers. But HMRC maintains that it never approved the schemes. It used the loan charge to claw back the unpaid tax from the workers, with many facing bills that exceeded their income. MPs and campaigners have accused HMRC of unfairly targeting and ruthlessly hounding the contractors while failing to go after the scheme promoters. Now, minutes of a meeting from 2019 between Lord Amyas Morse, who led the 2019 loan charge review, and the leader of the latest review, Ray McCann, reveal that HMRC offered discounts to settle the tax bills of employers who used the schemes. In the minutes of the meeting, Mr McCann is recorded as saying: 'The earlier settlement opportunity that had been open to large companies had included significant discounts, so that eventually the companies settled for somewhere in the region of 15pc in 2015.' He went on to say 'the contractors weren't offered these terms', and 'settlement opportunities have always had a discount, and contractor one is the only one that didn't.' Mr McCann is currently concluding the loan charge review, which was launched in January 2025 after calls from MPs. A former HMRC inspector, he was president of a professional body of tax advisers called the Chartered Institute of Taxation from 2018 to 2019. According to official figures, 800 companies paid HMRC £1bn through financial settlements related to the schemes between 2011 and 2015. This works out an average tax liability of £1.25m per firm. In Parliament earlier this week, Mr Smith said: 'A recent Freedom of Information request has revealed that, for a number of schemes, HMRC has settled with large corporations for just 15pc of what was owed. 'With the loan charge review ongoing, does the Chancellor agree with me that individuals should be treated no differently from the large corporations for which this precedent has been set?' Liberal Democrat MP Angus Macdonald, another APPG member, has tabled an Early Day motion – supported by 18 MPs so far – expressing 'astonishment' about the deals and the fact they have 'never been revealed to Parliament'. Mike Warburton, The Telegraph's tax columnist and former director at accountants Grant Thornton, said: 'These revelations have shown in stark contrast the way the Treasury and HMRC have treated large corporate taxpayers on the one hand and small contractors on the other.' Critics of the loan charge argue it retroactively punishes contractors who signed up to the schemes in good faith. The large timeframes involved create massive tax bills as years' worth of interest has rolled up on the debt. In one case, an individual earning £13,000 a year landed a £250,000 bill, according to the minutes of the meeting between Mr McCann and Lord Morse. Steve Packham, of the Loan Charge Action Group, said: 'Ten people have killed themselves as a direct result of HMRC's ruthless persecution of people who the Chancellor herself has described as 'victims of mis-selling'. 'Yet we now know that just a year before the loan charge was introduced to Parliament, HMRC agreed a deal with large companies letting them pay just 15pc of what they said they owed.' MPs and campaigners are now demanding that the Government offer contractors the same 15pc terms given to large corporations and open an inquiry into the scandal. Mr Smith, co-chairman of the Loan and Taxpayer Fairness APPG, said: 'It's absolutely staggering to discover that just a year before the loan charge was introduced to Parliament, that HMRC agreed a deal allowing large companies to settle for just 15pc of what HMRC said they owed, for use of similar arrangements.' He continued: 'Regardless of what Ray McCann recommends in his report on settlement terms, all those facing the loan charge and those pushed to settle to avoid it must all be offered no more than 15pc as full and final settlement.' HMRC said all settlements are agreed after considering the individual facts of each case and made under our published settlement terms. A spokesman said: 'We don't recognise these claims. We're absolutely committed to ensuring every taxpayer, regardless of size, pays the tax that's legally due. 'Given an independent review is under way it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.'
Telegraph
29 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Home Secretary orders UK-wide illegal working ‘crackdown'
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a nationwide immigration 'enforcement crackdown' to target illegal working in the gig economy. Officers will carry out checks in hotspots across the country where they suspect asylum seekers are working as delivery riders without permission. It comes after Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat said they would ramp up facial verification and fraud checks over the coming months after conversations with ministers. Last week, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, claimed in a post on X to have found evidence of people working illegally for the food delivery firms during a visit to a hotel used to house asylum seekers. On Saturday, the Home Office said anyone caught 'flagrantly abusing the system in this way' will face having state support discontinued, whether entitlement to accommodation or payments. 'Strategic, intel-driven activity will bring together officers across the UK and place an increased focus on migrants suspected of working illegally while in taxpayer-funded accommodation or receiving financial support,' the Home Office said. 'The law is clear that asylum seekers are only entitled to this support if they would otherwise be destitute.' Businesses who illegally employ people will also face fines of up to £60,000 per worker, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years. Asylum seekers in the UK are normally barred from work while their claim is being processed, although permission can be applied for after a year of waiting. It comes as the Government struggles with its pledge to 'smash the gangs' of people smugglers facilitating small-boat crossings in the English Channel, which have reached record levels this year. Some 20,600 people have made the journey so far in 2025, up 52 per cent on the same period in 2024. Ms Cooper said: 'Illegal working undermines honest business and undercuts local wages. The British public will not stand for it and neither will this Government. 'Often those travelling to the UK illegally are sold a lie by the people-smuggling gangs that they will be able to live and work freely in this country, when in reality they end up facing squalid living conditions, minimal pay and inhumane working hours. 'We are surging enforcement action against this pull factor, on top of returning 30,000 people with no right to be here and tightening the law through our Plan for Change.' Eddy Montgomery, director of enforcement, compliance and crime at the Home Office, said: 'This next step of co-ordinated activity will target those who seek to work illegally in the gig economy and exploit their status in the UK. 'That means if you are found to be working with no legal right to do so, we will use the full force of powers available to us to disrupt and stop this abuse. There will be no place to hide.' Deliveroo has said the firm takes a 'zero-tolerance approach' to abuse on the platform and that despite measures put in place over the last year, 'criminals continue to seek new ways to abuse the system'. An Uber Eats spokesman said the company will continue to invest in tools to detect illegal work and remove fraudulent accounts, while Just Eat said it is committed to strengthening safeguards 'in response to these complex and evolving challenges'. Responding to the announcement, Mr Philp said: 'It shouldn't take a visit to an asylum hotel by me as shadow home secretary to shame the Government into action.' He added: 'The Government should investigate if there is wrongdoing by the delivery platforms and if there is a case to answer, they should be prosecuted. 'This is a very serious issue because illegal working is a pull factor for illegal immigration into the UK – people smugglers actually advertise it.' Mr Philp also said women and girls were being put at risk because deliveries were being made to their homes by people 'from nationalities we know have very high rates of sex offending', without specifying which nationalities he was referring to.
