Resident doctors’ strikes risk derailing Labour’s NHS recovery plan
Patients left in pain and discomfort.Thousands of appointments and operations cancelled.Much of the reaction to the decision of resident (formerly junior) doctors in England to stage their third six-month series of strikes over pay in just 16 months has focused on the disruption to NHS services.But their stoppages also threaten to pose serious problems – political, economic and reputational – for the government.For Keir Starmer, Wes Streeting and inescapably Rachel Reeves, too, this is a situation replete with risk but without an obvious solution.
First, it will make the already tricky delivery of the government’s main NHS pledge – to restore the 18-week wait for planned hospital care by 2029 – even harder.Last July, Labour inherited a waiting list that stood at 7.6m treatments and appointments.After a year of the party overseeing the NHS, it remains at a stubbornly high 7.4m.
On current trends, ensuring that 92% of people waiting get seen within 18 weeks of referral by a GP as promised looks like a real stretch even without strikes.As the NHS Confederation chief executive, Matthew Taylor, says: “Hitting the 92% target is a difficult enough ambition without further industrial action.”Second, a fresh round of strikes by resident doctors could embolden other NHS staff groups to do the same.That is a real fear among health bosses.Other health unions envy the 22% rise for 2023-24 and 2024-25 that the then junior doctors got within days of Streeting becoming health secretary and noted that it came after they withdrew their labour on 11 occasions, for a total of 44 days, in 2023 and 2024.
Resident doctor stoppages could well encourage others.The Royal College of Nursing and Unison recently initiated indicative ballots about possible strike action.Both have done so in recent years and have restive memberships, many of whom see NHS salary rounds as involving doctors who are far better paid getting preferential treatment yet again.As the Health Foundation noted recently, even though the strikes by doctors, nurses, ambulance crews and others ended, “there remains significant underlying dissatisfaction with pay” among NHS staff trying to cope with more than three years of historically high inflation.Third, a government that has got itself into huge difficulties over the cost of winter fuel payments and disability benefits will struggle to offer a bigger pay rise than the 5.
4% it unveiled in May – at least, not in the form of extra cash from a Treasury that does not have it.That leaves open the possibility that ministers could agree a bigger rise with the British Medical Association (BMA) and tell the NHS to fund it.But with the health service already grappling with a forecast deficit of £6.6bn for this year, it has no money to spare.There is no obvious middle ground for Streeting and the BMA to meet on.
He has insisted that this year’s 5.4% settlement will not be reopened.The union for its part says he needs to produce “a credible offer” to address a 20% real-terms fall in resident doctors’ pay and start to “negotiate a path to full pay restoration” – or face strikes that could last until next January.The recent readiness of the medical profession’s younger members to take industrial action in pursuit of their 29% pay claim suggests they will not back down.Streeting struck a deal with a BMA weary after 44 days of strikes and fruitless negotiations with the previous government.
It will take all his persuasive skills, and a pragmatism so far unseen in the BMA’s approach, for the same to happen again.
Bank of England rolls out looser mortgage rules to help first-time buyers
The Bank of England has rolled out looser mortgage rules that policymakers hope will help 36,000 more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder each year.New guidelines announced by the UK’s central bank mean that individual banks and building societies can offer more high loan-to-income (LTI) mortgages, which are equal to, or worth more than, 4.5 times a borrower’s annual earnings.While high LTI loans are usually considered more risky, the Bank said most banks were not taking advantage of their individual caps, meaning there were fewer available to borrowers than hoped.Sam Woods, the chief executive of the Bank’s regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority, said the changes should benefit tens of thousands of first-time buyers
Prax Lindsey oil refinery owners urged to ‘do decent thing’ for workers
The UK government has written to the husband-and-wife team behind the insolvent Prax Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire urging them to “do the decent thing” and support affected workers financially, amid mounting concern that finding a buyer for the plant will be difficult.In a letter to the Prax Group owners, Arani and Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai, seen by the Guardian, the junior energy minister Michael Shanks said the government was “urgently exploring what support can be offered to the workforce at this difficult time”.He added: “However, we strongly encourage you to do the decent thing and publicly commit to make a voluntary financial contribution to support workers at [Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery].“This could be through direct financial support to them or funding for retraining schemes to ensure that they can pursue new job opportunities if the refinery cannot be sold.”More than 100 fuel tanker drivers were told on Monday they had lost their jobs
Seven UK housebuilders to pay £100m to fund affordable homes after CMA investigation
Seven housebuilders have agreed to pay £100m to affordable housing schemes after the UK competition watchdog found evidence that they may be sharing commercially sensitive details that affect the price of homes.The developers – Barratt Redrow, Bellway, Berkeley Group, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry – have not admitted any wrongdoing but have agreed to make the combined payment, which will be split between affordable housing programmes across the four UK nations.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened its investigation into the housebuilders last year after it found evidence of information sharing that “prevented and distorted” competition, including on pricing levels, the number of property viewings, and incentives offered to buyers such as upgraded kitchens or stamp duty contributions.The housebuilders have told the CMA they will refrain from sharing certain types of information with other housebuilders, including prices that homes have been sold for, except in limited circumstances.If the watchdog accepts the commitments, they will become legally binding and mean it will not have to decide whether the housebuilders broke competition law
Looser bonus rules and tax breaks needed to save London stock market, says CBI
The London stock market risks “drifting into irrelevance” without government and regulatory reforms, ranging from tax breaks for stock market listings to looser bonus rules for directors, a lobbying group has said.The 20 recommendation put forward by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which lobbies on behalf of UK businesses, suggest financial incentives, marketing campaigns and boardroom pay are central to guaranteeing the future success of the London Stock Exchange, which has been losing stock market listings and floats to foreign rivals.“With domestic capital shifting away from UK equities, new listings having slowed … and high-growth firms often looking overseas to raise capital, the UK stands at a pivotal moment for the future of its public equity markets,” the CBI said.The lobbying group claims that tax breaks could persuade more companies to list their shares. By making the costs of a flotation or initial public offering (IPO) tax deductible, the government would be ensuring more cash is available for reinvestment and growth, the CBI’s Revitalising UK Public Markets report said
London’s stock exchange needs a shot in the arm from the Treasury | Nils Pratley
A marketing campaign to promote the joys of investing in the London stock market? The idea may sound slightly desperate, and will fall flat if proponents think they are rehashing the one-off “Tell Sid” privatisation campaign for British Gas from 40 years ago. But, actually, yes, give it a go.As the CBI puts it in a report out on Wednesday, a “new narrative” is needed to stop the London Stock Exchange drifting into irrelevance. Since 2016, 143 UK-listed companies have exited to private equity takeovers. That tally is depressing if one agrees that corporate transparency and accountability are better in the public arena and that a healthy economy needs a buzzy exchange
ASA cracks down on online pharmacies advertising weight loss injections
Online pharmacies are no longer allowed to run adverts for weight loss injections, the advertising watchdog has ruled, as part of a crackdown on what has been described as a “wild west” culture of online selling.In the UK, advertising prescription-only medications (POMs) – which includes all weight loss jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro – to the public is illegal. However, a Guardian investigation previously found some online pharmacies either breaking these rules outright, or exploiting grey areas to peddle the medications to the public.Now the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has released nine new rulings that, it says, will set clear precedents for advertisers.The ASA said the new rulings meant that while pharmacies could continue to mention weight loss injections on their websites, provided they were not shown on homepages or landing pages from other links, adverts were banned from using the phrases “weight loss injections” and “weight loss pen”, and the treatments must instead be marketed as part of a wider service, including a consultation and prescription
How to make the best veggie burgers | Kitchen aide
José Pizarro’s recipe for courgette and almond gazpacho
‘Deeply wrong’: would you use a barbecue to cook a full English breakfast?
Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for lemongrass chicken lettuce wraps
Sophie Wyburd’s recipes for summer pesto pasta
‘It is not jus. It is not a glaze. It is gravy!’ Britain’s gift to the world finally gets the love it deserves