Peer calls for tax rises to pay for social care
TAX rises to rescue the UK’s crisis-hit social care system seemed closer yesterday after politicians of all parties demanded that the public fork out.
In the Lords, former civil service chief Bob Kerslake called for a “dedicated tax” funded by forcing older workers to pay National Insurance contributions even after state pension age.
Currently, more than one million people working beyond the state pension age are exempt from the levy.
Meanwhile, over-40s and their employers should contribute to a “Social Care Premium” fund to pay for any care needed by over-65s, according to a joint report by MPs on the Commons housing, communities and local government and health and social care committees.
Crossbench life peer Lord Kerslake said: “I passionately believe taxes need to increase to pay for social care and I think there should be a dedicated tax to fund health and social care.
“Everyone accepts the system needs more money and that can’t be done without tax rises.”
In a swipe at Theresa May’s claim that a Brexit dividend could fund the creaking system, he said: “It’s an insult to our intelligence for the Prime Minister to tell us there’s a Brexit dividend.
“There is no Brexit dividend and since the end of the Second World War we have squared the circle of paying more for health by cutting defence – and that’s no longer an easy option.”
The peer spoke at the launch of a report by the Institute for Government, but campaigners hit back, saying Britons already paid record taxes.
John O’Connell of The TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The tax burden is already near a 40-year high. Hypothecated [dedicated] taxes do not work. If there is an area of spending which is reliant on a new tax, what happens if less is raised than forecast? Equally, if more is raised than planned, the opportunities for misspending are manifest.
“What the NHS should be doing is looking at different ways to automate some current functions, to free up frontline staff for palliative and acute medicine. This will save taxpayers money and improve healthcare outcomes.”
Caroline Abrahams of Age UK, said: “Making older people who work past their retirement age pay National Insurance could be tough for someone on a low income, especially if a person who has retired and stopped work on a big pension isn’t paying anything at all.”
The MPs’ report calls for extra inheritance tax on estates over a certain threshold, reform of council tax, and for local authorities to be able to use funding from additional business rates retention in 2020 to pay for social care.
The Department of Health said: “We have provided local authorities with £9.4billion in dedicated funding for social care over three years and will agree a sustainable funding settlement at the forthcoming spending review.”
IF Britain is to thrive after we leave the EU next year we need the very best international transport system and a third runway at Heathrow puts us at the very centre of world travel and trade. When this is finished, sooner rather than later, it will demonstrate that we are open for business and worthy of entering the 21st century as an independent, global trading nation.
As an MP Boris Johnson did the right thing by supporting his constituents’ objections to the local disruption of the project. But he is now Foreign Secretary entrusted with the bigger responsibility of making Brexit a success and the expansion of Heathrow is a key part of that. Boris’ flight to Afghanistan simply allowed him to side-step a situation in which he would have had to vote against Theresa May’s Government. He has a bigger vision for Britain to contemplate.
More interesting was the fact that 119 Labour MPs defied their leader Jeremy Corbyn to vote in support of the third runway, knowing it is good for jobs and Britain’s economic future. Indeed more Labour MPs voted for it than against it, exposing the hard-Left’s antibusiness agenda.
Of course one has sympathy for the local communities that will be blighted by the development but villages and landscapes were ripped up in the process of building railways in the 19th century. That heralded a dramatic new age of national prosperity and we must not shy away from that now. Around the world, rising new economic powers in the Middle East and Asia are constructing vast new airports to handle an explosion in international flights.
HEATHROW might currently be the second biggest airport in the world by international passenger traffic but it cannot hang on to that title without an extra runway.
Closer to home, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam are all looking to overtake Heathrow in the next five years. That’s why it is vital that having finally made the decision and backed it with a parliamentary vote we must get on with building the extra runway – and fast.
Depressingly Boris Johnson reassured his constituents that because of future judicial challenges the runway may not actually ever be built. We cannot have this death by a thousand Nimby cuts.
If a project is deemed to be of national strategic importance it must be fast tracked and not held back by endless costly wrangling. Like Brexit, once the decision has been made everyone should get behind it and make it work brilliantly. Those who continue to drag their feet are guilty of betraying our national interest.
Opponents to the new runway hoped to throw a spanner in the works by highlighting a government report out this week from the Committee on Climate Change saying a rapid expansion of our aviation capacity will breach our commitment to carbon reduction. It will in effect take us out of the Paris agreement on climate change, they say.
Well, I’m sorry, but when it comes to our very survival as an independent trading nation we must consider our continued national prosperity before basing economic policies on an environmental concern that may or may not actually affect us in the end. The same concerns don’t seem to be holding back our international rivals.
Climate has always changed over thousands of years and it is sheer human folly to think that we can halt it by stopping our industrial development. It is better that we put money into helping those directly affected by climate change rather than fruitlessly trying to stop it altogether.
It has been estimated that the new runway could lead to as many as 77,000 new jobs over the next two decades. That’s a lot more tax coming to the Government to pay for increased expenditure on the NHS and social services. Some £60 billion could be generated for the wider economy in total.
A potential doubling of passengers coming to and from the UK will bring much needed added revenue for our tourist and hospitality industries. It also ramps up our ability to handle cargo from around the world that puts us in a good position to challenge America and China for this business.
Just as the Thames docks used to be busy with loading and unloading sailing ships at the height of our empire in the 19th century, so Heathrow will be thronging with passenger and freight aircraft delivering us a prosperous future.
TRANSPORT Secretary Chris Grayling said this week: “This country can no longer afford to wait for extra aviation capacity. Parliament has the opportunity to take a bold and decisive step to deliver a strong free-trading global Britain after Brexit. The alternative is unthinkable.”
Thank goodness our MPs made the right choice but our government must be equally bold in ensuring that work begins as soon as possible in putting this into action. The UK is already at risk of becoming an international laughing stock as it stumbles and stutters towards Brexit. We cannot let this happen again over a third runway, damaging confidence in our ability to make anything happen in the UK.
As the inventive people who gave the world steam ships and railways, our future success will always depend on mastering transport that spans the world. This week, by backing the expansion of Heathrow, we can show we still have that global ambition. As we approach Brexit it is time for this bigger vision to triumph.
‘77,000 new jobs could be created’