What the commentators said
A new Treasury hub in Darlington. A new infrastructure bank based in Leeds. Eight low-tax “freeports” in places such as East Midlands Airport, Humber and Plymouth. Sunak certainly didn’t forget about the Government’s pledge to “level up” the country in his Budget, said Charlotte Gill on Conservative Home. The operation is “well and truly under way”. It is indeed, said Tom Peck in The Independent. And if it seems aimed at people who voted Tory for the first time in decades at the last election, that represents, in some ways, politics working as it should. “There is no moral principle against giving people a reason to vote for you.” The real wonder is that the Government didn’t see what a PR disaster their NHS plan would be.
It’s “not a great look” for a populist PM to be denying nurses a decent pay rise while “whining” about his own inability to get by on a £157,372 salary, said Ian Birrell in the I newspaper. The Government mishandled this whole thing. It should either have “stood firm” on its public sector pay freeze, or stuck to the 2.1% plan. Offering a “derisory” 1% was never going to please anyone. While few would begrudge nurses a better deal, their current one is not actually that bad. Newly qualified nurses have seen their pay jump by 12% over the past three years in cash terms. The Centre for Policy Studies showed that, even during the period of austerity, when pay was officially frozen, NHS salaries rose by an average of 2.7% a year as staff passed thresholds within their various pay bands.
The idea that nurses work all hours “for a pittance” is outdated, agreed Mary Dejevsky in The Spectator. The average annual salary of a nurse in London and the Southeast is around £34,000, with cost of living supplements – “not a fortune, but not bad”. Compared to many workers, they enjoy enviable job security and pensions. “If anyone deserves a pay rise for their efforts during the pandemic, it is social care workers, who are indeed paid a pittance” and don’t enjoy those benefits. Any spare government cash this year should be spent on bringing these neglected workers “up to the equivalent pay and conditions that pertain in the NHS”.
What next?
Ministers will make the final decision on NHS pay in May, once the pay review body has made its recommendation. Some Tory MPs are calling for a one-off bonus, of the kind offered to NHS staff in Scotland and Northern Ireland, who will get £500.
Former chancellor George Osborne warned this week that the plans to increase corporation tax could deter international investment, reports The Times. He also said the Government needed to start making the argument for new motoring taxes to replace fuel duty, now that more cars are going electric. His comments were echoed by another former chancellor, Lord Darling, who suggested the Treasury look again at road pricing.