Wage boost for low-paid and younger workers
B&M BOSS WELCOMES MOVE DESPITE HIGHER COST
THE minimum wage in Britain will rise from £8.91 to £9.50 per hour next year, the Treasury announced on Monday (25).
The hike “means a full-time worker on the National Living Wage will see a pay rise of more than £1,000 a year,” said a Treasury statement.
The minimum wage increase, which applies to workers aged 23 and above, is matched by other increases for younger workers. “This wage boost ensures we’re making work pay and keeps us on track to meet our target to end low pay by the end of this parliament,” chancellor Rishi Sunak was quoted as saying in the statement.
The boss of discount retailer B&M, Simon Arora, welcomed the rise in the living wage. Speaking ahead of the budget and exclusively to Eastern Eye’s Asian Rich List, he said, “We welcome it. It’s going to cost us more money, but one recognises that for our society to be sustainable, people who are in full time work need to be paid a wage that allows them to live a respectable life, a viable livelihood.
“With some of the cost pressures that are coming through at the moment, be that on your electricity bill, be that on filling up your car with petrol, or be that on basic groceries that you’re hearing about, the existing level of the minimum wage is too low. It’s not realistic.”
All eyes will be on Sunak on Wednesday (27) as he outlines the government’s tax and spending plans for the next year. He is grappling with a range of problems thrown up by the pandemic and lockdowns, with many anticipating tax hikes to deal with record borrowing.
The chancellor is expected to set fairly tight limits for most areas of day-to-day public spending in his budget, which will seek to lower public debt after a record surge in borrowing during the pandemic. Among measures announced in advance of the budget included funding for the NHS, education and regional transport.
A £6 billion health fund will help patients waiting for diagnostic tests and non-emergency operations. Part of the money will go towards creating 100 “one-stop-shop” diagnostic centres across England to catch life-threatening diseases such as cancer. Sunak called it a “game-changing investment... to make sure we have the right buildings, equipment and systems to get patients the help they need.”
He will also announce a £5 billion fund for innovative health-related projects, according to the Treasury. Health secretary Sajid Javid said the investment would add to coronavirus treatments and vaccines developed in the UK to battle the pandemic.
“The new investment will build on this success by accelerating the discovery of groundbreaking medicines and technologies,” he said.
But the big-spending plans have raised questions about where the debt-wracked government is going to find the money, with free-marketers from the ruling Conservatives concerned that it will come from tax rises.
The UK is also suffering from high inflation and supply shortages, blamed on the pandemic and Brexit.
Sunak told Sky News last Sunday (24) that high employment levels were a sign that the government’s “plan for jobs is working”.
However, he conceded supply shortages and high energy prices were squeezing household budgets. Shadow chancellor and Labour MP Rachel Reeves took aim at Sunak for not doing enough to ease the burden. “Our priority would be easing the cost-of-living price crisis, helping businesses who have had a torrid 18 months,” she told Sky News.