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Daily Mirror
13 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mirror
Record £75m boost for hospices- full list of sites and how much funding they'll get
More than 170 hospices across England will receive a share of the funding - which will go towards building separate family rooms, adding solar panels to reduce energy costs and communal lounges Hospices will get a £75 million boost - the largest cash injection ever - for building upgrades to ensure patients get the most. More than 170 hospices across England will receive a share of the funding - which will go towards building separate family rooms, adding solar panels to reduce energy costs and communal lounges. Among the hospices to get cash will be Wigan and Leigh, which Health Minister Stephen Kinnock visited this week. It will use the additional funding to replace its heating system – helping create a better, more comfortable environment for patients and enabling staff to deliver higher quality care. "Hospices play a vital role in our society by providing invaluable care and support when people need it most,' said Mr Kinnock. 'At this most difficult time, people deserve to receive the best care in the best possible environment with dignity. 'I've seen first-hand how our funding is already making a real difference to improving facilities for patients and families. This additional funding will deliver further upgrades, relieving pressure on day-to-day spending. 'End-of-life care is crucial to our 10 Year Health Plan and our fundamental shift of moving more care out of hospital and into the community. We will continue to support hospices so they can deliver their vital work.' Toby Porter, the CEO of Hospice UK, said: "The announcement in late 2024 of £100 million in capital funding for hospices was welcome recognition from the government of the immense pressure facing hospices, and their urgent need for more financial support. "We were pleased to distribute the first £25 million of this funding early in March. We know this money has made a huge difference to hospices and the next £75 million will continue to help them invest in their buildings, facilities, and digital infrastructure. "While this one-off investment has been very welcome, it's critical that we continue to work with government to secure long-term reform to ensure hospice care is there for everyone who needs it, whoever and wherever they are. "The government has just emphasised the importance of hospices in their 10 Year Plan for the NHS and the role they can play in shifting care from hospitals into the community. With the right support, there is so much more they can do to realise the vision set out in the 10 Year Plan. We look forward to working with government to make this a reality." And Matthew Reed, Chief Executive of Marie Curie said: "Marie Curie welcome this grant funding, which we will be investing in helping to ensure people living with terminal illness are well cared for across England - whether in our hospice buildings, or in their own homes through improvements in use of digital technology 'We look forward to working with the Government to ensure longer-term funding is put in place to ensure the best possible palliative care is sustainably available for everyone who needs it, including in their new neighbourhood health centres in the most deprived communities.' Hospices receiving funding in full Children England West Midlands 906,009 Alexander Devine Children's Hospice Service (MAIDENHEAD) England South Central 143,868 Alice House Hospice (HARTLEPOOL) Adults England North East 182,598 Arthur Rank Hospice Charity (CAMBRIDGE) Adults England East Of England 706,038 Ashgate Hospicecare (Chesterfield) Adults England East Midlands 633,770 Barnsley Hospice (Barnsley) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 240,117 Bassetlaw Hospice of the Good Shepherd Adults England East Midlands 21,822 Beaumond House Hospice Care (NEWARK) Adults England East Midlands 98,556 The Hospice Charity Partnership (BIRMINGHAM) Adults England West Midlands 1,113,392 Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice (Sheffield) Children England Yorkshire And Humberside 221,517 Blythe House Hospice (High Peak) Adults England East Midlands 119,874 Bolton Hospice (Bolton) Adults England North West 321,556 Bury Hospice (Bury) Adults England North West 185,022 Butterfly Hospice Adults England East Midlands 36,645 Butterwick Hospice Care (Stockton-on-Tees) Both England North East 181,126 Campden Home Nursing CIO (CHIPPING CAMPDEN) Adults England South West 69,180 Children's Hospice South West (Barnstaple) Children England South West 814,983 Claire House Children's Hospice (BEBINGTON) Children England North West 513,514 Compton Care (Wolverhampton) Adults England West Midlands 647,697 Cornwall Hospice Care (ST. AUSTELL) Adults England South West 482,954 Demelza Hospice Care for Children - Demelza Kent (Sittingbourne) Children England South East Coast 726,405 Derian House Children's Hospice (Chorley) Children England North West 345,812 Derwentside Hospice Care Foundation - Willow Burn Hospice (Lanchester) Adults England North East 71,909 Dorothy House Hospice Care (BRADFORD-ON-AVON) Adults England South West 886,978 Douglas Macmillan Hospice (Stoke-on-trent) Both England West Midlands 985,433 Dove Cottage Day Hospice (Melton Mowbray) Adults England East Midlands 27,927 Dove House Hospice (HULL) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 332,097 Dr Kershaw's Hospice (Oldham) Adults England North West 277,090 East Anglia's Children's Hospices (Cambridge) Children England East Of England 657,927 East Cheshire Hospice (Macclesfield) Adults England North West 388,471 East Lancashire Hospice (Blackburn) Adults England North West 256,539 Eden Valley Hospice (Carlisle) Both England North West 276,661 Ellenor (Northfleet) Both England South East Coast 404,132 Farleigh Hospice (Chelmsford) Adults England East Of England 804,804 Forget Me Not Children's Hospice (Huddersfield) Children England Yorkshire And Humberside 225,696 Francis House Children's Hospice (MANCHESTER) Children England North West 456,213 Garden House Hospice (LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY) Adults England East Of England 369,785 Great Oaks Hospice (Coleford) Adults England South West 74,748 Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice (LONDON) Adults England London 692,418 Halton Haven Hospice (Runcorn) Adults England North West 166,182 Harlington Hospice Association (KINGS LANGLEY) Adults England London 346,552 Haven House Children's Hospice (WOODFORD GREEN) Children England London 265,338 Havens Hospices (Southend on Sea) Both England East Of England 783,256 Heart of Kent Hospice (Maidstone) Adults England South East Coast 288,828 Helen and Douglas House Hospice Care for Children and Young Adults (OXFORD) Children England South Central 492,205 Hope House Childrens Hospice (OSWESTRY) Children England West Midlands 434,393 Hospice at Home West Cumbria (WORKINGTON) Adults England North West 101,692 Hospice at Home, Carlisle and North Lakeland (DALSTON) Adults England North West 93,861 Hospice in the Weald (TUNBRIDGE WELLS) Both England South East Coast 594,580 Hospice of St Francis (Berkhamsted) Adults England East Of England 364,857 Hospice of the Good Shepherd (Chester) Adults England North West 243,555 HospiceCare North Northumberland (ALNWICK) Adults England North East 55,858 Hospiscare (Exeter) Adults England South West 539,545 Isabel Hospice (Welwyn Garden City) Adults England East Of England 349,756 Jessie May (Bristol) Children England South West 68,779 John Eastwood Hospice Adults England East Midlands 37,651 Julia's House (WIMBORNE) Children England South West 393,945 Kate's Home Nursing (CHELTENHAM) Adults England South West 26,529 Katharine House Hospice Adults England South Central 106,311 Katharine House Hospice (Stafford) (STAFFORD) Adults England West Midlands 292,620 Keech Hospice Care (STREATLEY) Both England East Of England 569,259 Kemp Hospice (Kidderminster) Adults England West Midlands 65,565 Kirkwood Hospice (HUDDERSFIELD) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 481,264 Lakelands Hospice (Corby) Adults England East Midlands 27,910 Lawrence Home Nursing Team Adults England South Central 28,758 Lewis-Manning Hospice Care (Poole) Adults England South West 146,139 Lindsey Lodge Hospice (Scunthorpe) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 233,137 Longfield (Minchinhampton) Adults England South West 150,687 LOROS Leicestershire and Rutland Hospice (Leicester) Adults England East Midlands 908,253 Marie Curie (Head office) (LONDON) Adults National National 3,741,578 Martin House (WETHERBY) Children England Yorkshire And Humberside 435,788 Mary Ann Evans Hospice (Nuneaton) Adults England West Midlands 111,447 Mary Stevens Hospice (STOURBRIDGE) Adults England West Midlands 249,600 Mountbatten Isle of Wight (NEWPORT) Adults England South Central 995,867 Naomi House and Jacksplace Children's Hospice (Winchester) Children England South Central 363,155 Noah's Ark Children's Hospice (Barnet) Children England London 343,815 North Devon Hospice (Barnstaple) Adults England South West 309,979 North London Hospice (London) Adults England London 849,842 Saint Michael's Hospice (HARROGATE) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 419,864 Nottinghamshire Hospice (NOTTINGHAM) Adults England East Midlands 216,116 Oakhaven Hospice (LYMINGTON) Adults England South Central 469,395 Overgate Hospice (Elland) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 251,077 Pendleside Hospice (Burnley) Adults England North West 285,768 Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice (FARNHAM) Adults England South East Coast 827,194 Pilgrims Hospices In East Kent (Canterbury) Adults England South East Coast 872,396 Primrose Hospice (Bromsgrove) Adults England West Midlands 86,956 Princess Alice Hospice (Esher ) Adults England South East Coast 792,957 Priscilla Bacon Hospice Care Ltd Adults England East Of England 11,537 Prospect Hospice (Wroughton) Adults England South West 380,937 Queenscourt Hospice (SOUTHPORT) Adults England North West 411,471 Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People (Loughborough) Children England East Midlands 433,026 Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care (WATFORD) Both England East Of England 835,737 Richard House Children's Hospice (London) Children England London 257,538 Rosemary Foundation - Hospice at Home (PETERSFIELD) Adults England South Central 51,690 Rossendale Hospice (Rawtenstall) Adults England North West 75,687 Rotherham Hospice (ROTHERHAM) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 363,202 Rowcroft - The Torbay and South Devon Hospice (Toruqay) Adults England South West 474,903 Royal Trinity Hospice (London) Adults England London 954,730 Saint Catherine's Hospice (Scarborough) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 313,138 Saint Francis Hospice (Havering-Atte-Bower) Adults England London 573,393 Severn Hospice (Shrewsbury) Adults England West Midlands 688,781 Shipston Home Nursing (Shipston-on-Stour) Adults England West Midlands 30,618 Shooting Star Children's Hospices (Hampton) Children England South East Coast 509,193 Sidmouth Hospice at Home Adults England South West 50,777 Sobell Hospice Charity Limited Adults England South Central 235,825 South Bucks Hospice (HIGH WYCOMBE) Adults England South Central 57,314 St Barnabas Hospices (WORTHING) Both England South East Coast 1,864,066 Springhill Hospice (Rochdale) Adults England North West 335,915 St Andrew's Hospice (Grimsby) (Grimsby) Both England Yorkshire And Humberside 277,767 St Ann's Hospice (CHEADLE) Adults England North West 677,719 St Barnabas Lincolnshire Hospice (Lincoln) Adults England East Midlands 709,550 St Catherine's Hospice (Crawley) (Crawley) Adults England South East Coast 609,426 St Catherine's Hospice, Lancashire (Lostock Hall, Preston) Adults England North West 500,160 St Christopher's Hospice (LONDON) Adults England London 1,569,819 St Clare West Essex Hospice Care Trust (Hastingwood) Adults England East Of England 434,835 St Cuthbert's Hospice (DURHAM) Adults England North East 205,458 St Elizabeth Hospice (Ipswich) Adults England East Of England 714,417 St Gemma's Hospice (LEEDS) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 675,424 St Giles Hospice (LICHFIELD) Adults England West Midlands 641,379 St Helena Hospice (COLCHESTER) Adults England East Of England 711,249 St John's Hospice Adults England London 440,816 St John's Hospice, Lancaster (Lancaster) Adults England North West 379,872 St Joseph's Hospice (London) (London ) Adults England London 938,909 St Joseph's Hospice Association (LIVERPOOL) Adults England North West 200,161 St Leonard's Hospice (YORK) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 426,238 St Luke's Cheshire Hospice (Winsford) Adults England North West 252,533 St Luke's Hospice (Basildon) (BASILDON) Adults England East Of England 453,446 St Luke's Hospice (Harrow And Brent) (Harrow) Adults England London 527,405 St Luke's Hospice (Sheffield) (Sheffield) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 770,529 St Luke's Hospice Plymouth (Plymouth) Adults England South West 665,871 St Margaret's Hospice (Somerset) (TAUNTON) Adults England South West 611,916 St Mary's Hospice (Ulverston) Adults England North West 258,538 St Michael's Hospice (BASINGSTOKE) Adults England South Central 258,005 St Michael's Hospice (Hastings & Rother) (St. Leonards-on-Sea) Adults England South East Coast 440,829 St Michael's Hospice (Hereford) (Hereford) Adults England West Midlands 499,423 St Nicholas Hospice Care (Bury St Edmunds) Adults England East Of England 292,742 St Oswald's Hospice (Newcastle upon Tyne) Both England North East 751,441 St Peter & St James Hospice (North Chailey ) Adults England South East Coast 234,096 St Peter's Hospice (Bristol) Adults England South West 753,756 St Raphael's Hospice (SUTTON) Adults England London 395,307 St Richard's Hospice (Worcester) Adults England West Midlands 512,652 St Rocco's Hospice (Warrington) Adults England North West 265,263 St Wilfrid's Hospice (Chichester) (Bosham) Adults England South East Coast 423,855 St Wilfrid's Hospice (Eastbourne) (Eastbourne ) Adults England South East Coast 537,573 Sue Ryder ( London) Adults National National 3,750,000 Teesside Hospice Care Foundation (Middlesbrough) Adults England North East 224,192 Thames Hospice (Maidenhead) Adults England South Central 672,002 The Darlington & District Hospice Movement (St Teresa's Hospice) (Darlington) Adults England North East 230,736 The Myton Hospices (Warwick) Adults England West Midlands 671,378 The Norfolk Hospice, Tapping House (Kings Lynn) Adults England East Of England 244,593 The Prince of Wales Hospice (Pontefract) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 211,175 The Rowans Hospice (Waterlooville) Adults England South Central 513,362 The Shakespeare Hospice (Stratford Upon Avon) Adults England West Midlands 96,648 Treetops Hospice Care (RISLEY) Adults England East Midlands 196,402 Trinity Hospice and Palliative Care Services (Blackpool) Both England North West 615,213 Tynedale Hospice at Home (Hexham) Adults England North East 47,593 Wakefield Hospice (Ossett) Adults England Yorkshire And Humberside 235,143 Weldmar Hospicecare (DORCHESTER) Adults England South West 525,405 Weston Hospicecare (Weston-super-Mare) Adults England South West 214,899 Wigan and Leigh Hospice (Wigan) Adults England North West 369,258 Willen Hospice (MILTON KEYNES ) Adults England South Central 431,061 Willow Wood Hospice (Ashton-under-Lyne) Adults England North West 181,350 Willowbrook Hospice (Prescot) Adults England North West 299,610 Wirral Hospice St John's (Wirral) Adults England North West 393,841 Woking & Sam Beare Hospice (WOKING) Adults England South East Coast 481,630 Woodlands Hospice (LIVERPOOL) Adults England North West 59,820 Zoe's Place - Baby Hospice (Coventry) Children England West Midlands 225,490 Article continues below Be the first with news from Mirror Politics BLUESKY: Follow our Mirror Politics account on Bluesky here. 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Spectator
3 days ago
- Business
- Spectator
Why wealth taxes don't work
The nation owes the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock an eternal debt for losing the 1992 general election when he was clear favourite to win it, thereby sparing us whatever socialist folly he might have brought to Downing Street. I salute him again for popping up to propose a 2 per cent wealth tax on fortunes above £10 million that might raise a supposed £11 billion for the hard-pressed Chancellor – thereby bringing into sharp focus the vague threat that several cabinet ministers have studiously refused to rule out. Pressure is building on Rachel Reeves from backbenchers, unions and anti-poverty campaign groups to mount a raid on the rich in her autumn Budget. But Kinnock of all people, a firebrand backbencher at the time, should remember that Labour's 1974 manifesto included the promise of 'an annual Wealth Tax on the Rich [and] a new tax on major transfers of personal wealth' – which was dead within two years. Why? Because of concerns in the Treasury, and among worldly Labour voices such as the (millionaire) cabinet fixer Harold Lever, that at a time of dire UK economic performance, such a confiscatory measure would provoke an exodus of capital and a crisis of business confidence. Sound familiar? Once upon a time, wealth taxes were in fashion in a dozen OECD countries, as bien pensants bought Thomas Piketty's thesis, in his absurdly bestselling tome Capital, that a global levy was the moral solution to the fact that the rich were getting richer even while ordinary folks' real incomes were squeezed. But one by one, most of those taxes were scrapped as being difficult to collect, economically counter-productive and an incentive to entrepreneur flight. In Europe, only Norway, Spain and Switzerland still have them – and further afield, Colombia, presumably in pursuit of cocaine loot. Spain is reckoned to have lost 10,000 of its richest since the higher rate was raised to 3.5 per cent in 2022. In short, the tired old wealth tax concept is a classic red flag of envy politics – and we must thank Lord Kinnock for waving it. Not with a bang Meanwhile, Reeves's 'Leeds reforms' ahead of her Mansion House speech on Tuesday made great play of slashing City red tape. But after a backlash from the sector she has U-turned on her well-advertised plan to cut the £20,000 tax-free cash Isa limit in the hope of pushing savings towards UK equities. Spin ahead of the day's speeches talked of a new 'Big Bang'. But until there's a tidal shift of capital towards high-growth UK companies – and valuations rise accordingly, driven by a revival of international confidence in UK prospects generally – all other City reforms risk being dismissed (to misquote T.S. Eliot) not as bangs but as whimpers. Rose among clowns Congratulations and an overdue apology to Cindy Rose, the senior London-based Microsoft executive who has been headhunted to revive WPP, the advertising and PR conglomerate that has never fully recovered from the acrimonious departure of its creator Sir Martin Sorrell in 2018. One of the few world-scale businesses built in Britain in the past 40 years and a long-time constituent of the FTSE 100 index, WPP stands accused of running adrift in the era of social media marketing. Torn by internal strife, it has lost clients and seen its shares plunge; another sharp fall followed the resignation of the current chief executive Mark Read and a profits warning last week. Some analysts say the best hope is a break-up into its constituent agencies, while Sorrell himself declares unhelpfully that WPP may be 'too far gone' to be turned around, even by Rose. Who is she? A New York-trained lawyer, she has also worked for Vodafone and Virgin and been called 'the most powerful woman in UK tech'. And I'd guess she's well skilled at deflating the overblown male egos that tend to disrupt 'talent-led' firms such as WPP – which takes me neatly to my apology, for an episode long ago when Rose, newly arrived to work for a top London law firm, found herself among Englishmen behaving riotously at a dinner party that might have been a rejected scene from Laura Wade's play Posh. This being the pre-internet age, an exchange of barbed letters followed, mine on crudely faked US Supreme Court letterhead purporting to offer consoling advice from Justice Clarence Thomas. While I guffawed at my own ungallant wit, she evidently concluded that if this drunken 'peanut gallery' (I think that was her phrase) was the best an expensive British education could produce, she'd have no difficulty overtaking us to build a top-level corporate career on this side of the pond. As indeed she has: so not only is moral victory hers but I suspect our buffoonery hardened her ambition. And I'll happily offer her tea at the Ritz to celebrate that positive outcome. Korea from here? How do we achieve a revaluation not just of London-listed stocks but of the UK as a whole in the eyes of the world? The question came to mind twice this week. First, contemplating (but not actually ordering) a 'Korean Crunch Burger' on the room-service menu of a Premier Inn, I wondered how the austere industrial powerhouse of South Korea I knew in the 1980s became so fashionable in fast food, pop music and cinema that the prefix 'K-' will these days sell almost any gimmick. Next, enjoying pierogi and vodka at the Ognisko restaurant in South Kensington's Polish Hearth Club, I recalled the downbeat post-communist Poland of the early 1990s, now a rising star of European diplomacy, tourism and even Wimbledon tennis. In both cases, a generation-long release of creativity and animal spirits has wrought startling transformation. How do we get there from here? Certainly not by following the flickering torch of Reeves and our visionless Prime Minister. But still the question should be writ large on every Westminster whiteboard.
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
HMRC 'doesn't know how many billionaires actually pay tax in the UK', MPs reveal
MPs have criticised the taxman for its lack of detailed information on the super-rich and what they pay, potentially making it harder to impose a wealth tax HMRC doesn't know how many billionaires pay tax in the UK - or what they cough-up, MPs have revealed. This worrying lack of know-how is despite there being relatively few billionaires to keep tabs on, and the huge amounts of money involved, they say. Critics claimed it showed HMRC had 'one set of rules for the wealthiest, and another for everyone else.' The Commons Public Accounts Committee, in a report, also flagged a wider problem that could hamper efforts to impose a wealth tax. Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock recently suggested imposing a 2% tax on assets valued above £10million would bring in up to £11billion a year. Downing Street and senior ministers have refused to rule out the idea as Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces a battle to plug a massive hole in the public finances. Yet efforts could be complicated by the crucially important information HMRC gathers. According to the report: 'HMRC has no overview of an individual's total wealth and faces challenges in getting all the data it needs to risk assess and target wealthy people.' The committee says the taxman has had some success in cracking down on the rich, including those trying to dodge tax. Through better enforcement of the rules, it collected £5.2billion from the wealthy in the 2023/24 financial year, more than double the £2.2billion in 2019/20. They are defined as individuals with incomes of £200,000 or more, or assets equal to or above £2million, in any of the past three years. HMRC - whose work collecting tax is vital for funding public services - has around 1,000 in a team dedicated to getting tax from the rich, and has secured funding to take on another 400. But the report says the authority 'can and must' do more. It found HMRC 'does not know how many billionaires pay tax in the UK or how much they contribute overall.' Yet the Sunday Times Rich List includes figures in its annual update, recently finding there were 155 billionaires in the UK. The Public Accounts Committee suggests HMRC 'immediately start work' comparing available data on known billionaires, including the Rich List, with its own records. It notes they do something similar already in the US, where the Inland Revenue Service worked with researchers to link its data to the Forbes 400 list of the super-rich. There were also just 25 criminal prosecutions of wealthy people for their tax affairs in 2023/24. Meanwhile, the number of penalties slumped from 1,747 to 456 penalties. Another area of concerns was the so-called tax gap - the difference between what HMRC thinks the wealthy may owe and what it collected. The report questioned whether the estimate of £1.9billion is "over optimistic". It points to estimates of £300million due from offshore sources, when UK residents held £849billion in offshore accounts in 2019. The committee recommends HMRC use artificial intelligence to speed up the data gathering process. Lloyd Hatton, a Labour MP member of the committee, said it was crucial for taxpayers to have trust in the system and for the rich to be paying their fair share. "This report is not concerned with political debate around the redistribution of wealth," he said. "Our committee's role is to help HMRC do its job properly ensuring wealthy people pay the correct tax. While HMRC does deserve some great credit for securing billions more in the tax take from the wealthiest in recent years, there is still a very long way to go before we can reach a true accounting of what is owed.' Fariya Mohiuddin, interim deputy director at the group Tax Justice UK, said: 'If HMRC isn't able to tax the super-rich fairly, how can anyone have faith in a system that seemingly has one set of rules for the wealthiest, and another for everyone else. At the heart of this story is the urgent need for HMRC to have the resources and political backing for it to be an effective and efficient tax authority that can administer a tax system that is fair and fit for the 21st century. 'With millions waiting for healthcare treatment to essentials being unaffordable for many, HMRC needs to be able to collect the right tax from the super-rich. Failing to do so lets money be squirrelled away into tax havens like some of the British Overseas Territories which deprives our communities, hospitals and schools of the cash they need. he government must give HMRC backing by investing in it for the long-term, to make the system fair, and ensure British tax havens implement transparency measures to prevent offshore hoarding of wealth.' An HMRC spokesperson said: "The government is determined to make sure everyone pays the tax they owe. Extra resources were announced in the recent spending review which allows us to significantly step up our work on closing the tax gap amongst the wealthiest. This includes recruiting an extra 400 officials specialising in the wealthy and offshore tax gap, and increasing prosecutions of those who evade tax." They added that large amounts of data was already used to collect the tax that is legally due, relying on multiple sources, including our own records, information that is already in the public domain and detail shared by other countries.
Telegraph
7 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour opens door to tax raid on middle-class
Labour has opened the door to higher taxes for middle-class workers in the autumn Budget. Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, said on Sunday that the Government had promised not to put up taxes for 'people on modest incomes'. Asked if tax rises should be expected in October, the Cabinet minister said that 'fairness' would be the 'guiding principle' for the Government when it came to taxation. It comes after Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader, said that the party was 'willing to explore' a wealth tax, such as a 2 per cent levy on asset values above £10 million. When asked if the proposals had been raised during the 'away day' for Cabinet ministers at Chequers on Friday, Ms Alexander said: 'Not directly at the away day.' She told Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: 'I think your viewers would be surprised if we didn't recognise that at the Budget the Chancellor will need to look at the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) forecast that is given to her and will make decisions in line with the fiscal rules that she has set out. 'We made a commitment in our manifesto not to be putting up taxes on people on modest incomes, working people. We have stuck to that. 'We haven't put up income tax. We haven't put up VAT apart from taking away those VAT tax reliefs that people who send their children to private school get, and we obviously haven't put up employee National Insurance.' Asked if tax rises should be expected in the autumn, the Transport Secretary said: 'So the Chancellor will set her Budget. I'm not going to sit in a TV studio today and speculate on what the contents of that Budget might be. 'We are determined when it comes to taxation, fairness is going to be our guiding principle.' Labour has repeated the promise not to increase taxes on 'working people', but the Transport Secretary's comments mark a shift in the language surrounding taxation. Workers also face paying more in tax even without any additional rises in the Budget, if Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, chooses to maintain the freeze on income tax thresholds further than 2027-28. Keeping the threshold for the additional rate of income tax frozen at £125,140 for a further five years would push the number of workers paying the levy to 8.66 million, according to figures from wealth manager Quilter, seen by The Telegraph. It would mean around one in six earners would fall into the top tax bracket, up from just one in 33 today. It came as Eluned Morgan, the First Minister of Wales, piled pressure on Sir Keir Starmer by saying that wealth taxes were 'not a bad idea'. She told the Sunday Mirror: 'I think that people with the broadest shoulders should carry more of the burden. 'I don't know all of the levers available, but the idea of taxing people earning over £10 million is not a bad idea,' she said. Sir Keir is already facing calls for a wealth tax from many of his own backbenchers, who have also argued that Ms Reeves should break her fiscal rules and borrow more. The Government has ruled out any change to the fiscal rules, but ministers are now openly talking up a wealth tax in some form. A Downing Street spokesman said this week that Sir Keir is 'committed to the wealthiest in society paying their share in tax'. As recently as April, Ms Reeves told The Telegraph she could categorically rule out tax hikes for the richest, revealing: 'We're not interested in a wealth tax.'
Daily Mirror
09-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
Major NHS change will see everyone get a dentist within next four years
Big win for the Mirror's Dentists for All campaign as the Government commits to scrapping the 'absurd' NHS dental contract this Parliament Everyone who needs an urgent NHS dental appointment will be able to get one within four years, the Government has said. The minister with responsibility for dentistry has committed to reforming the flawed NHS dental contract by the end of this Parliament in a major win for the Mirror 's Dentists for All campaign. Health minister Stephen Kinnock gave the commitment when being grilled by MPs on the Health and Social Care Select Committee. Currently most dental practices are not taking on new NHS patients and millions of people cannot get a dentist. Stressing the urgency for reform, Mr Kinnock, Minister for Care, said: 'We're on a burning platform." "We have a moral imperative to fix NHS dentistry in our country. How can it be that we live in a country where the biggest cause of 5 to 9 year old children being taken to hospital is to have their decaying teeth removed? Tooth decay is an almost entirely preventable problem.' READ MORE: Dentist: 'I feel guilty but I'm quitting the NHS to earn more going private' The NHS dental contract has been branded 'perverse' by the British Dental Association as it disincentivises treating people who need care most - because dentists make a financial loss on high-needs patients. Last week's Ten Year Health Plan sparked fears that proper reform of the dental contract will be kicked into the long grass until after the next General Election. It only said that by 2035 a new contract would be at the heart of a "transformed" NHS system. Mr Kinnock said: 'We are absolutely clear that we have to fix this before the end of this Parliament. We want transformed NHS dentistry by 2035. But it is absolutely clear that the fundamental contract reform to put us on the pathway to change has to happen within this parliament. 'What does success look like by the end of this Parliament set for success? Everyone who needs access to urgent and unscheduled care must be able to access it and dentists must be incentivised and motivated to deliver NHS dentistry.' The Government commitment comes in the week the Mirror has published a series of special reports from Devon which is one of Britain's worst dental deserts. We heard how the underfunded contract is driving an exodus of dentists into the private sector and children are left in pain waiting for multiple teeth to be removed. READ MORE: Dentist being fined £150K by NHS for keeping patients' teeth too healthy However Mr Kinnock suggested the Treasury is refusing to fund radical reform. Any new contract will likely recycle current "underspends" where dentists currently have to return cash due to the flawed system. The total £3 billion budget for England is only enough to fund care for half the population. The committee heard that the budget for England has fallen from £3.6 billion in a decade and the British Dental Association said this equates to a funding cut of a third in real terms. Minister Kinnock said: 'I think we've got to define what we want to do with the NHS contract, based on the reality of the finite resource that we will have. We have to work on the assumption that we will have the financial envelope in the region of the current financial settlement. That is the reality of the world that we live in. So the question then is how do we make that NHS contract work to its maximum impact for the people who need it most? 'I think we need to be very clear and robust about, with the finite resources we have, this is what we can achieve.' Dr Shiv Pabary, BDA chair of the General Dental Committee, said: 'We've lost up to a third of our budget over the last ten years [in real terms]. Dentistry has had the most amount of money reduced as a proportion of the NHS budget. The spend in 2010 was 3.3% of the NHS budget now it's down to 1.5%. 'We've had huge cuts… we need to back any new system up with the necessary funding.' A key demand of the Mirror's Dentists for All campaign is reform of the hated NHS payment contract which currently leaves practices treating high-needs NHS patients at a loss. It pays dentists the same if a patient needs three fillings as if a patient needs 20 fillings. Dental contract reform was one of Labour's main manifesto promises before the 2024 General Election. Mr Kinnock said Britain has the lowest ratio of dentists per capita of any country in the G7. He said: 'When we came into government a year ago, we inherited a system in terms of NHS dentistry that was on its knees. 'We are clear that we have to have a contract that ensures that everybody who has an urgent need for dental care gets it, that dentists are incentivised and motivated to do NHS work, and that every single penny that is allocated for NHS dentistry is spent on NHS dentistry.' He added: 'When we say everybody who needs urgent care, gets it. It's about defining what we mean by 'need'.' Interim measures announced on Tuesday will attempt to begin to change a situation where dentists are disincentivised from treating the patients who need care most. It will require practices to provide a number of additional emergency appointments, on top of their regular patients, at an improved rate. The NHS contract pays the practice for each Unit of Dental Activity - known as a UDA. A check-up is worth one UDA while a filling is worth three. Dental practices are currently paid around £40 per UDA but for these extra emergency appointments practices will be paid £70 to £75.
