Hospital ready occasions in England fall to lowest degree in 5 months – UK politics dwell | Politics

In the Commons Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, is responding to the pressing query about council tax. (See 9.41am.)

He says there have been caps on the extent to which councils can elevate council tax yearly since 2012. And he says the present cap – 5% for councils which have social care obligations – have been put in place by the final authorities. Any council that desires to transcend the cap has to carry a referendum.

He says, when the final authorities was in workplace, the Office for Budget Responsibility assumed that councils would put up council tax by 5% in all years going forward.

He additionally accuses the Conservatives of leaving native authorities finance in “a mess”.

Ministers are urging the dwell music business to impose a voluntary levy on tickets to massive live shows at stadiums and arenas to assist fund grassroots venues.

They need the scheme to come back into impact subsequent yr. They have mentioned they are going to contemplate the effectiveness of this transfer earlier than deciding if additional measures are wanted to assist small venues.

As PA Media stories, some bands have already taken the step to donate a portion of ticket gross sales to assist fund smaller venues. Enter Shikari gave £1 of each ticket offered for his or her 2024 enviornment tour to the Music Venue Trust charity as a gesture of assist for the grassroots dwell music sector. Coldplay have additionally pledged to donate 10% of income from their upcoming UK stadium tour to assist smaller venues.

In a statement, Chris Bryant, the tradition minister, mentioned:

Grassroots music venues are one of many UK’s Most worthy and but undervalued cultural property. They are the place bands check out new materials, the place complete new genres are born, the place musicians experiment and the place audiences get to expertise the uncooked energy of dwell music.

These venues assist hundreds of jobs and are a significant a part of our native communities. Without a flourishing grassroots music business the remainder of our music business will wither.

It is essential that we work collectively to assist the grassroots together with venues, festivals, artists and promoters. That is why I’m urging the business voluntarily to introduce a ticket levy on the most important business gamers, to assist make sure the well being and future success of our complete dwell music business for many years to come back.

The ready checklist for routine hospital therapy in England has fallen to its lowest degree for 5 months, PA Media stories. PA says:

An estimated 7.57 million therapies have been ready to be carried out on the finish of September, relating to six.34 million sufferers – down from 7.64 million therapies and 6.42 million sufferers on the finish of August, NHS England mentioned.

These are the bottom figures since April 2024.

The checklist hit a report excessive in September 2023, with 7.77 million therapies and 6.50 million sufferers.

Good morning. We’re two weeks on from the funds, and from the federal government’s perspective it appears to have landed fairly nicely. Nothing has unravelled, there haven’t been any U-turns (but?) and Labour is assured that it has manoeuvred the Tories right into a place the place they’re attacking the funds tax rises however backing the funds spending measures – an irrational place that’s finally unsustainable.

But that doesn’t imply budget-related issues for the federal government have gone away, as a fast take a look at as we speak’s entrance pages will present.

The Times is splashing a story about on ongoing complaints from enterprise concerning the impression of the nationwide inheritance tax enhance. It says “a post-budget survey of 185 businesses by the CBI found that 61 per cent of companies polled had formed a negative view of [Rachel] Reeves’s announcements, while 60 per cent said it had made Britain a less attractive place to invest.”

The Daily Mail is splashing on a story about how councils in England shall be allowed to lift council tax by as much as 5% subsequent yr with out holding a referendum. This is precisely the identical cap that has been in place since 2022, however a 5% rise would now be above inflation, and the Conservatives are suggesting the cap ought to be decrease.

And Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has given an interview to the BBC saying there shall be “eye-watering cuts” to the police in London due to a scarcity of presidency funding. It will not be uncommon for individuals working large public service organisations to complain about their budgets when they’re negotiating with Whitehall for cash, however Rowley’s feedback are hanging nonetheless. In an interview with Nick Robinson for his Political Thinking podcast Rowley mentioned he was “deeply troubled” by the scenario he was in. He defined:

This is not only about this yr’s selections, nevertheless it’s a cumulative impact of selections over the past decade or so which have put us in a increasingly more precarious place.

Some of the issues that successive commissioners and mayors have used to steadiness the books – like promoting police stations and utilizing reserves – all of these issues have run out. So these are propped up the funds. Those props have gone.

The chancellor has been very clear – it’s a troublesome public sector context. You add all these issues collectively and also you get a dramatic change in budgets, and of a scale that’s by no means going to be absorbed by efficiencies. And it’s going to require some fairly eye-watering cuts to the providers we offer to London.

Rowley mentioned he confronted some “very, very difficult choices” and that these would grow to be clear to the general public “over the next few weeks”.

The authorities says it can enhance spending on the police subsequent yr, however particular person power budgets haven’t been determined but. It desires to speak about pension funds as a substitute. Reeves is delivering her Mansion House speech tonight and, as Kalyeena Makortoff stories, she goes to announce plans to merge native authorities retirement schemes into “megafunds”.

There will not be a lot within the political diary for as we speak, however little question the God of News will give us one thing to jot down about.

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