Burnham's likely economic policies if he becomes PM

Thank you! I’ll read it but not tonight, toooooo hot and grumpy!

I didn’t expect a rush of posts on this thread because it’s a longish document with the rather annoying insistence on getting your details before it can be downloaded, but I’ll bump it for a bit to see just how interested those posters who claim they know nothing about what Burnham plans to do really are in finding out

Thank you, but I would rather hear it from the horse's mouth. At present very little is known about his intentions.

He's supposedly going to give a series of speeches laying out his stall over the next few weeks so hopefully you'll get what you want from them.

Thank you, Maizie.

I’ve skim read it and will return later to read in more detail but the phrases that jump out at me are public control of essentials^ and the privatisation premium including water and adult social care - two major issues that I hope Burnham will tackle, along with energy and rent.

Extract:

Adult social care shows the same dynamics operating through the labour market rather than the balance sheet. The average annual cost of residential care in England now exceeds £50,000 — depleting the savings of all but the wealthiest before local authority funding kicks in, and even then, is funded by local authorities at rates care providers argue are below the cost of decent provision. The sector employs around 1.6 million people, the majority on or near minimum wage, with high turnover and insecure contracts. This is the labour market consequence of a business model that compresses the one variable cost it can control. Billions in public money flows through the sector annually via local authority contracts, while quality remains uneven and the workforce crisis deepens. The financial extraction layer sitting between public funding and care delivery is a privatisation premium by another name: resources redirected from workforce and provision toward investors, with weak public control over quality, coverage, or the business model that determines both.

I had hoped that Labour under Starmer would tackle adult social care but they haven’t. They scrapped the faulty £86,000 care cap scheme that the Tories proposed but never got off the ground. Fair enough as it was unworkable, unaffordable and wasn’t addressing the core problem which is indeed the privatisation premium.

What Graphite said. I look forward to reading the full report shortly. It will give me hopefully a framework to analyse what AB says when he addresses his economic policies Thank you

I read that he has considered a land tax to replace council tax and IHT, which would be ring fenced for social care. What I read (sorry, can't remember where) was that it would be something like 10% of the property value for everyone - no nil rate - so far more people will pay it, but at a lower rate. I don't know what happens when people have money but no property, or how selling up in older age and dying as a renter will be disallowed - in fact I don't know any of the finer details - but at face value it seems like a good idea.

Those with more will pay more, and it should help to mitigate the current situation where someone with a house worth £150k is left with nothing after care fees, when someone with a million pound house is left with £850k after the same fees have been paid. It should also even out the numerous CT anomalies which mean that someone in a small house in the North can pay double the rate of someone in Westminster who gets significantly more for their money. I think the idea is that landlords would pay double, to reflect both the profit on the rent and the appreciation of the property value, but again, I'm not sure about that.

It would also mean that there is no longer a lottery when it comes to passing on assets to children, where those with parents who need care can end up with nothing, and those who don't can get up to £1m tax free.

What about businesses who own buildings and the surrounding land (yards and storage) ?

What about pensioners who have little disposable income but have remained in their family home, how are they meant to afford it?

I am totally against IHT in its current form and collection model.

I would be amazed if any of this came to pass -at least in the remainder of this term

GrannyGravy13

What about businesses who own buildings and the surrounding land (yards and storage) ?

What about pensioners who have little disposable income but have remained in their family home, how are they meant to afford it?

I am totally against IHT in its current form and collection model.

I can't remember all the detail, but I guess that someone with a family home would pay the money on death - 10% of the value, rather than ££ in CT every year. I don't know about business premises.

This would be a completely different model from current IHT, and would (to me, and at face value without much detail) seem fairer than the current way in which IHT, CT and Social Care fees are managed.

Tuliptree

I would be amazed if any of this came to pass -at least in the remainder of this term

No, there's not enough time to get it all through, and it wasn't in the manifesto, but if I understand it correctly (not a given) it should appeal to a lot of people at the next GE. Instead of high IHT being paid by only 4% of the population, everyone would pay 10% of property value on death, so no unaffordable bills, CT would be a lot fairer than it is currently, and the thorny problem of social care would finally be grasped.

I agree with the need for radical reform in this area but those with mist to lose will have the most power and influence to trash it.

For example, look how the changes to interest on cash deposits in stocks and shares ISAs have been reported in papers like the Mail, Telegraph . Truth twisting and scaremongering. And now they’ve started on the fears of the equalisation of rates of CGT and income tax. Again deliberately misleading and scaremongering and zilch attempt to seriously address the issue and construct a rational argument against it. Just rolling out the ‘pensioners will be hit’ line. This is what AB and whoever is his Chancellor will be up against.

Yes, it will be an uphill struggle. I really hope that AB will use the time between now and taking office (assuming he does that) to get the best Comms team available, and have them up to speed from day 1.

He's already shown a sense of humour that will help - his 'I'm a naughty boy' comment in the HoC, and the clip of him fluttering his eyelashes and looking down at his T shirt then saying 'it's dark blue' in response to KB's jibe were good natured and amusing, and met the jokers on their own ground. It will be more difficult when they really get going though - a laddish smile and 'bacatcha' retort won't help with cutting through tweets and soundbites.

I think he's likely to appeal to younger people, so maybe he could find a way to ridicule the trotters out of slogans, in the way Jasper Carrott did with Sun readers? He needs a strategy of some sort, whatever happens.

The annual cost of care in England certainly exceeds £50.000. My friend pays £9.000 per month. She initially went into 2 other care homes (still over £8.000 per month) but they were not very good. She has enough to pay for another 3 years, then she will be wiped out. Some very interesting hypothesis above.

My MIL is paying something like £1500 a week, and it is more for residents with Dementia. That's £78000 pa.

It's a lot of Dosh 🙄 They'll have to throw me off London Bridge 🤣

You can bet he will be feathering his own nest!
His wife is Director of BeEV and Induna Infrastructure. She secured a contract to supply EV infrastructure and supply energy to Greater Manchester Combined Authority for the famous “bus” project that her husband keeps banging on about. She is Chief Marketing and Customer Officer for Octopus Energy. What a surprise! 😝

Primrose53

You can bet he will be feathering his own nest!
His wife is Director of BeEV and Induna Infrastructure. She secured a contract to supply EV infrastructure and supply energy to Greater Manchester Combined Authority for the famous “bus” project that her husband keeps banging on about. She is Chief Marketing and Customer Officer for Octopus Energy. What a surprise! 😝

Oooohhhh a clever successful woman. How very dare she.

Primrose53

You can bet he will be feathering his own nest!
His wife is Director of BeEV and Induna Infrastructure. She secured a contract to supply EV infrastructure and supply energy to Greater Manchester Combined Authority for the famous “bus” project that her husband keeps banging on about. She is Chief Marketing and Customer Officer for Octopus Energy. What a surprise! 😝

What surprises you about any of that?

It surprises me how many women dislike seeing other women do well.

Just a minute Primrose - are you implicitly accusing them of corruption? That’s pretty serious. Still I guess you’ve read up on all the facts including the fact that the contract was initially awarded long before she joined the company and all the proper processes that have been followed since? I just don’t understand how having read up on all of this, you still think something is shall we say amiss?

And so the onslaught against Burnham begins.

I am indebted o David Hollas from The Receipts UK for this:

Companies House filings confirm Marie-France van Heel now holds 252 shares in Iduna Infrastructure, parent of Be.EV, and is a beneficiary of a long-term incentive plan, both acquired after she joined the board in September 2024. That directly updates what Burnham said in 2022, that she held no shares and received no bonus or incentive payments.

The GMCA maintains it has met disclosure obligations throughout, and Iduna hasn't tendered for the newest contract.

Marie-France van Heel isn’t chief anything for Octopus Energy. She is Chief Customer Officer at Be.EV.

Octopus Energy Generation's investment fund is Be.EV's majority backer, a separate entity from Octopus Energy the retail supplier and she holds no role there.

Andy Burnham’s statement 18 February 2022.

andyformayor.co.uk/2022/02/18/personal-statement-by-rt-hon-andy-burnham-mayor-of-greater-manchester-on-the-gm-clean-air-zone/

And so the onslaught against Burnham begins.
Indeed. And it sounds libellous to me.

Obvs another term in office will be needed after the next three years But I think he will have some appealing ideas and policies and will look forward to hearing about them.