Published: 17 March 2023
By Suzanne Evans, Director, Political Insight
Strikes on Budget Day meant more than 50% of schools in England closed or restricted attendance, according to government data. Secondary schools were worst affected, with 79% restricting attendance and 5% fully closed on 15 March. On 16 March, 80% restricted attendance and 6% were shut. London had the highest proportion of affected schools, with only 18% able to fully open on both strike days. As well as teachers, junior doctors, civil servants, London Underground train drivers and some BBC staff also took strike action on 15th March, as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt stood at the dispatch box in the House of Commons to deliver his Spring Budget. Some small print in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget on Wednesday that went largely unnoticed, but not by Scottish distillers, was a 10.1% hike in duty on whisky. The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) said distillers were "not just livid, but insulted by the decision" and called for a reversal of the tax hike, which starts from August, accusing the Government of breaking a 2019 commitment to ensure the tax system supports the industry. Scottish Secretary Alister Jack Alister said on Wednesday he had tried to lobby against the increase in alcohol duty but had not been successful, saying it was a "matter of regret" and "not what I wanted for the Scottish industry." Graeme Littlejohn, director of strategy at the SWA told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme he thought it was "telling" that the Chancellor did not have full support for the measure from his Cabinet colleagues. The tax burden on the price of a bottle of whisky in the UK would rise from 70% to 75% from 1 August under the plans, Littlejohn said, meaning that of £15.42, the average price of a bottle of whisky in Scotland, £11.40 would go directly to the Treasury in taxation through duty and VAT. However, Hunt told BBC Radio Scotland that in real terms, duty on whisky was at its lowest level for 100 years. Jeremy Hunt has dropped a plan to tax sovereign wealth funds investing in Britain, according to a government document. The report, detailing the measures in a budget plan announced by Hunt on Wednesday, said "the government has carefully considered" responses to its consultation on the immunity of sovereign funds from direct taxation. "It has decided that there will be no change to the current exemption, and that it will continue to operate as it does now," the document, first reported by the Financial Times, said. The Government has banned TikTok on government phones with immediate effect. A statement from the Cabinet Office said: "Given the potentially sensitive nature of information which is stored on government devices, government policy on the management of third party applications will be strengthened and a precautionary ban on TikTok on government devices is being introduced." It said the app requires users to give permission for TikTok to access data stored on the device, which is then collected and stored. The Welsh Government has also banned TikTok from the work phones of Welsh government civil servants and ministers, but has yet to decide whether or not to maintain its TikTok account. A TikTok spokesman said the social media video app was “disappointed’ by the decisions. “We believe these bans have been based on fundamental misconceptions and driven by wider geopolitics, in which TikTok and our millions of users in the UK, play no part,” he said. A Chinese embassy spokesperson also accused the government of acting “based on its political motive rather than facts”. Britain’s next auction round to spur renewable power projects will be worth about £205m, the Government said yesterday. MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee have concluded that Royal Mail is falling down on its letter delivery obligations by prioritising parcels, and have called on Ofcom to investigate and take enforcement action if necessary. The communications regulator said Royal Mail's recent performance was "clearly well short of where it should be" and said it would consider the MPs' report. Royal Mail said it had clear policies that parcels and letters "should be treated with equal importance". It must, by law, deliver letters to all parts of the UK, six days per week, as part of its "universal service obligation". If it fails to do this, it can be fined by Ofcom. MPs are also claiming they were “misled” by Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson who gave evidence to the committee over the digital tracking of staff last month. Thompson was “not wholly accurate” when he told the committee personal digital assistant (PDA) data was not used to manage staff performance, they said. Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has released a report into driving licence delays at the height of the covid pandemic, revealing that some of the three million people who experienced long waits consequentially lost jobs or income, and suffered social isolation and mental health problems. The delays affected people who applied by post or had medical conditions, because the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) prioritised 17m online applications, because most applications are made that way. Complaints to the DVLA rose sharply in the two years after April 2020, the report said. The committee said it was aware of a bus driver who was threatened with losing his job, and a shift worker in a rural community who could not work. Others had difficulty arranging motor insurance, driving abroad or hiring vehicles. Despite changes to the law allowing licence renewals to be postponed, and the DVLA taking on additional staff, the problems at the DVLA had persisted for two years, the MPs said, adding that customers' poor experiences were exacerbated by "huge difficulty" contacting the DVLA at the time. They found that between April 2020 and March 2022 around 60 million calls went unanswered, 94% of the total the DVLA received. The committee was also critical of the Department for Transport (DfT) saying it had taken a "hands-off" approach to problems at the DVLA, and failed to ensure the organisation was adopting modern working practices. Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier MP described the DVLA's operations as "antiquated". Ofgem has fined United Gas & Power (UGP) £2.1m after ruling it had breached its licence conditions by deliberately overcharging customers. The decision follows a near three-year investigation which began in July 2020. The business energy supplier has around 2,700 customers. UGP will now pay out a nominal £1 fine and £2.1m to Ofgem’s voluntary redress fund. The watchdog’s investigation found that despite having actual consumption data available, UGP billed some customers on inflated consumption estimates, enabling it to generate extra revenue for itself to remedy a shortfall in its budget. The average customer was overcharged by more than £2,000, with one customer overcharged by more than £22,000. A £1.2 billion deal between two data management and software companies could push up costs for the NHS, The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has found. The watchdog has given UnitedHealth and Emis five days to come up with a plan to mitigate some of its concerns – or risk the CMA blocking the deal. NHS and ambulance staff in Scotland have accepted the latest pay offer from the Scottish government made to 160,000 NHS staff, including nurses, midwives and paramedics, equates to an average 6.5% increase in 2023/24. The offer is on top of the pay rise already allocated for 2022/23, meaning many staff could receive a consolidated 13 to 14% pay increase over a two-year period. GMB Scotland said 59.7% of balloted members had accepted the new offer. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) are also balloting their members, with the recommendation to accept the deal, which also includes commitment modernising the Agenda for Change, which is nearly 20 years old, to support workforce recruitment, sustainability and retention. One in four workers at Passport Offices across Great Britain are to strike for five weeks between April and May in a dispute over jobs, pay and conditions. Some 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will take part in the action, which the union warned is likely to have a "significant impact" on the delivery of passports ahead of summer. Global stock markets have rallied after a group of US banking giants stepped in to rescue a smaller regional lender, First Republic, which had been seen as at risk of failure. 11 US banks injected a joint $30bn (£24.8bn) into First Republic, and said in a statement that their action reflected their "confidence in the country's banking system". The move follows the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank last week. Meanwhile, British banks are seeing a pick-up in enquiries to switch cash between institutions after the collapse of US tech lender Silicon Valley Bank, suggesting contagion fears are prompting depositors to seek potentially safer harbours for their funds, Reuters reports. Barclays told the news agency it had seen an increase in enquiries to switch or open business accounts in the past few days. Virgin Money, Britain's sixth largest bank, said in a statement it had also seen "net business deposit inflows in recent days". The Government and the Bank of England have said the country's banking system is safe, sound and well capitalised. The UK arm of SVB was rescued by Europe's largest bank, HSBC on Monday, securing customer deposits and loans. Airlines have run up millions of pounds in County Court Judgments (CCJs) against them after failing to pay passenger expenses and refunds, an investigation by consumer body Which? has revealed. CCJs worth collectively more than £4.5m have piled up against airlines including EasyJet, Ryanair, Tui and Wizz Air, according to official records. Wizz Air has the most “outstanding CCJs,” 1,601 of them, worth almost £2.2m, according to Registry Trust, which maintains the official statutory register of judgments, orders, and fines for England & Wales on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. EasyJet had 884, amounting to £611,436 and Ryanair had 840 worth £549,892. Tui had fewer, at, 313, but they were worth almost £1.3m. BA has 82 outstanding, totalling £96,042, and Jet2 has four, amounting to £1,434. Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: “The scale of court judgments piling up against major airlines is a result of a system where the odds are stacked against passengers and airlines feel empowered to routinely ignore their legal obligations to pay out refunds and compensation. The CAA must get tough with airlines and make clear that it will consider using all the powers at its disposal — which may include reviewing the licences of the worst offenders if appropriate”. A group of beleaguered Home REIT’s top shareholders are said to be pushing for a sweeping clear-out of its charity tenant base as part of emergency rescue plans designed to restore its rental income, City A.M. reveals in an exclusive story. The plans are said to have been drawn up by Edinburgh-based RM Funds, a Home REIT shareholder, and have been dubbed Project Casa.The plan is to gather shareholder support for a move to “re-tenant” its properties and call in housing associations to take on the leases. Over 20 of Home REIT’s top 30 investors – representing 30% of its total shareholder base – have written to Home REIT’s board to back the plans in principle, a source close to the proposal told the newspaper, although they declined to give the names of the shareholders. RM Funds says such a move would see its Home REIT’s rental income shored up and potentially allow it to survive as a listed firm. In an update last month, Home REIT revealed it had collected just 23 per cent of rent, meaning that the vast majority of its tenant base could be replaced. Rolls-Royce has received £2.9m in funding from the UK Space Agency to look into how nuclear power could be used to support a future base on the Moon for astronauts. Scientists and engineers at the FTSE 100 manufacturer are working on the micro-reactor programme to develop technology that will provide power needed for humans to live and work on Earth’s natural satellite, to potentially dramatically increase the length of lunar missions. Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit said yesterday it was in talks for funding and exploring strategic options and after a cash crunch forced the satellite launch company to pause operations until 21st March. Nearly all its employees have been furloughed in a move aimed at helping it buy more time to finalise a new investment plan, according to various reports citing a meeting in which CEO Dan Hart conveyed the news. Shares in Virgin Orbit fell 31% in morning trading yesterday, pulling the company's market capitalisation down to about $230m, a far cry from the $3bn plus valuation it commanded after going public in 2021. In January, Virgin Orbit's rocket LauncherOne failed a mission to deploy nine small satellites into lower Earth orbit from Spaceport Cornwall due to an anomaly during its flight through space. In November, Virgin Orbit cut its target for mission launches in 2022, and booked a loss of nearly $44 million for the third quarter ended 30th September. Spaceport Cornwall says it is working with other space flight firms after Virgin Orbit said it would be pausing operations. Cornwall Council, which owns the Spaceport, said its "focus" was to "continue to grow". Louis Gardner, portfolio holder for the economy at Cornwall Council, said in a statement: "It is clearly a difficult time for the Virgin Orbit team as they navigate the next stage of their company, and we will await further information from them as events unfold. Our focus at Spaceport Cornwall is to continue to grow the space cluster in Cornwall, alongside progressing relationships with spaceflight operators. We remain the only licensed Spaceport in the UK and our plan is to build on that position." JCB has won its biggest-ever deal: rental firm Morris Leslie Plant Hire has placed an order for £87.5m worth of machines. They will be built at the British manufacturer's Rocester and Cheadle factories. FTSE 250 thermal heat supplier Bodycote has posted a jump in full-year profit and revenue, saying that permanent price increases had fully recovered labour and general cost inflation. In the year to the end of December 2022, headline operating profit rose 19% to £112.2m, on revenues of £743.6m, up 20.8% on the previous year. A plan by Vue International to merge with stricken London-listed rival Cineworld has reportedly stalled. According to Sky News, Vue has been frozen out of a sale process being run by Cineworld's advisers. Vue's founder, Tim Richards, has been attempting to engineer a tie-up between two of the UK's largest cinema operators, Cineworld having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last summer. Last week, Sky said that Lyn Goleby, the founder of boutique chain Picturehouse was in talks with Vue about buying it back as part of a break-up of Cineworld, which has been running a formal auction of its assets, although last month it said any sale was unlikely to realise any value for shareholders. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Netflix and Boeing are among the companies joining the "biggest-ever" US business mission to Vietnam next week to discuss investment and sales opportunities in the booming Southeast Asian nation, Reuters reports. Organiser the US-ASEAN Business Council, an industry body, says more than 50 companies, including defence, pharmaceutical and tech firms, will participate in the mission.
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