‘Urgent action points for the new prime minister to tackle’
FROM THE NHS AND HOUSING SECTOR TO HELPING BUSINESS, A WISHLIST FROM PROMINENT BRITISH ASIANS
SAVE THE NHS Dr Chaand Nagpaul, current chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) forum for racial and ethnic equality We have got, as we all know, a backlog of care of unimaginable proportions. It’s not just the 6.7 million waiting for operations, but we’ve got hidden millions who are waiting for chronic disease care, diabetes, mental health care, they don’t figure in the 6.7 million.
Each week, we’ve got the ambulance service and emergency services in gridlock. Each of those need to have solutions. She will need to stem the attrition in the workforce. We have a health service with 105,000 vacancies, and we cannot afford – at the moment – to lose a single healthcare worker. Neither can we afford to see what we are seeing, which is doctors reducing their hours.
I’ve been deeply disappointed by the campaign – why wait until you win this contest? We have heard no tangible solutions or ideas during the election, no specifics of how she’s going to tackle what is a once-in-a-generation scale of backlog and unmet health needs that we’ve ever experienced. It does make one wonder whether she’s totally committed to addressing the health agenda.
We have a situation where 1,000 more people are dying every week, compared to previous years. You would have thought those plans would have been off the shelves, ready to implement upon her becoming elected.
And yet we have no details. So, no, I don’t feel confident.
CUT STAMP DUTY Kamal Pankhania, CEO of development company Westcombe Group
My message to the new prime minister is simple – give the housing sector the support it needs, and it will, in return, deliver a stimulus to our economy.
First and foremost, the bureaucratic mess that is the UK’s planning system needs to be fundamentally transformed. Housebuilders and property developers are stifled by an ineffective system which is under-resourced and poorly managed at a local level. Once this issue has been addressed, the full potential of the UK’s housing market will be unlocked, benefiting individuals, industry and the economy as a whole.
A more short-term intervention could be an extension to the fantastic help-tobuy scheme. Getting more people onto the property ladder will not only reinforce the Conservative value of personal responsibility, but also give the construction industry the confidence to increase its output, delivering a much-needed boost to the economy.
If Liz Truss wants to show her Thatcherite credentials while simultaneously delivering for the economy and housing market, then Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) reform must be a priority. The tax disproportionately affects the average buyer, as it is an unnecessary added cost needed to complete a property purchase. By offering an exemption from SDLT for first-time buyers or raising the threshold in line with the average household price, the Truss government would break down barriers to access in the UK’s housing market and reduce the tax burden on already cash-strapped Britons.
THE TIME TO FOLLOW THROUGH Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder and chair, Cobra Beer
I believe we need to go down the route suggested by some of our CBI (Confederation of British Industry) major energy companies, including Scottish Power and Aeon, which
would be freezing the energy cap. It needs to be whatever it is right now, fewer than £2,000, not increasing it to more than £3,000, which consumers will not be able to afford.
There is a mechanism where you can do that and spread it out over a period of time to help with finance.
Business needs urgent help right now in a number of ways. That can be done now, including with energy, including helping with business rates, including with reducing VAT, for example, for the hospitality industry, where it was reduced to 12.5 per cent during the pandemic.
The main message as we were going through a major global crisis during the pandemic for two years was that the crisis was not over.
In fact, that crisis is continuing. We cannot see it – the government helped during the pandemic, but now, we can’t afford to help any more?
We need help even more than ever right now. This is an urgent situation, which we need to address right now. And it’s my old tennis stroke analogy. This is the follow through that’s required. If it means £100 billion more that’s required to help saving businesses and consumers, then so be it.
Otherwise, we’re going to have real problems. You are hearing stories of pubs and restaurants closing because they cannot afford to stay open, as the cost of
businesses has gone up by up to 500 per cent. That is
completely unaffordable.