Labour pronounces evaluate of state pension age
Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, has introduced the following statutory authorities evaluate into the retirement age as she launched a brand new pension fee amid issues over retirement financial savings.
The fee is predicted to supply suggestions for find out how to enhance retirement revenue in 2027.
The state pension age is 66 and is already anticipated to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028.
Kendall stated she was “underneath no illusions” about how tough it will be to map out plans for pensions for the approaching many years amid cost-of-living pressures.
Giving a speech in west London, she stated:
Put merely, until we act, tomorrow’s pensioners will probably be poorer than immediately’s, as a result of people who find themselves saving aren’t saving sufficient for his or her retirement.
And crucially, as a result of nearly half of the working age inhabitants isn’t saving something for his or her retirement in any respect.
Key occasions
Liz Kendall’s transfer to resurrect the Pensions Fee (see publish at 11.13) has been broadly welcomed by the pension trade in addition to commerce unions.
Paul Nowak, the final secretary of the TUC, stated: “Far too many individuals gained’t have sufficient pension for a good retirement, and too many – particularly girls, BME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] and disabled employees and the self-employed – are shut out of the office pension system altogether.”
As we reported earlier, the federal government has launched a evaluate into the state pension age – now at 66 for women and men, however is prone to rise to 67 from subsequent Might – and has commissioned two impartial reviews on this.
Damon Hopkins of economic adviser Broadstone, stated: “We might not be shocked to see an acceleration utilized to the rise of the state pension age.
“The mix of an ageing inhabitants and the massive fiscal value of the state pension would recommend {that a} change is inevitable. A decrease or later state pension would, after all, double down the necessity for reform within the personal financial savings panorama.”
Keir Starmer to exchange post-ministerial jobs watchdog with more durable regime
Pippa Crerar
Pippa Crerar is the Guardian’s political editor
Keir Starmer is to abolish the impartial post-ministerial jobs watchdog, which has lengthy been criticised as “toothless”, and – for the primary time – monetary penalties will probably be imposed on those that break the principles after leaving authorities.
As a part of a requirements overhaul that ministers hope will assist enhance public religion within the system, the Advisory Committee on Enterprise Appointments (Acoba) will probably be scrapped and a more durable regime launched.
Below the modifications, which come into drive from October and which the Guardian first reported final month, former ministers and senior officers discovered to have critically breached the principles will probably be requested to repay any severance fee acquired.
There may be at present no obligation for them to observe the steerage issued by Acoba to make sure there are not any conflicts of curiosity or that lobbying doesn’t happen, and the physique has no potential to subject punishments.
Boris Johnson, the Conservative former prime minister, breached the principles on taking jobs after authorities on three separate events with out dealing with a correct sanction, resulting in calls to beef up Acoba’s powers.
Eligibility for ministerial severance funds may also be restricted, with those that depart workplace following a severe breach of the ministerial code or having served lower than six months forgoing them solely. A brand new impartial ethics and integrity fee (EIC) will probably be set as much as oversee requirements.
You may learn the total story right here:
Tony Diver, the Telegraph’s affiliate political editor, is among the many journalists at Nigel Farage’s convention. He has shared Reform’s coverage costing doc. The get together estimates that the full value of halving crime can be £17.4bn over a five-year parliament, with an annual value of £3.48bn.
Farage says we face ‘nothing wanting societal collapse’ in elements of the nation
Nigel Farage has been talking at a press convention in London about what he has framed as “lawless Britain”. Listed below are a number of the highlights of the convention, which you’ll watch on the high of the weblog. The Reform chief didn’t cite particular proof or information to again up a lot of his claims:
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He claims successive residence secretaries have primarily based claims that crimes in England and Wales are falling on “utterly false information”. He says when you have a look at police recorded crimes there are “vital” rises in crime, significantly these in opposition to the particular person.
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Farage says we face “nothing wanting societal collapse” in lots of elements of the nation, with “folks scared to exit to the retailers” and to “let their children out”.
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He says criminals and law-abiding residents respect police lower than they used to.
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He says low stage offences – like cellphone snatching and store lifting – are rife in London and never being prosecuted.
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Most individuals don’t even hassle calling the police to report against the law as a result of they know officers are unlikely to take any motion, Farage stated.
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Farage stated that “no one in London understands how shut we’re to civil disobedience” in Britain.
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He stated that offenders convicted of greater than three severe crimes needs to be “on a course in the direction of life imprisonment”.
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Reform would put extra knife arches in prepare stations and different transport hubs to clamp down on crime, Farage steered.
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He stated that each shoplifting offence can be prosecuted and each cell phone theft investigated if Reform obtained into authorities on the subsequent election.
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Farage indicated that the get together would drive Reform UK councils to take new prisons of their areas as a part of the get together’s plans to deal with crime.
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Farage stated the UK’s retirement age will “inevitably” should rise as life expectancy will increase.
The Division for Work and Pensions (DWP) stated “stark” new evaluation confirmed that:
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Over three million self-employed should not saving right into a pension.
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Just one in 4 low earners within the personal sector are saving right into a pension.
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Just one in 4 of these from a Pakistani or Bangladeshi background are saving.
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The brand new evaluation reveals a 48% gender pensions hole in personal pension wealth between men and women, with a typical lady receiving simply over £100 every week and a person receiving £200 from personal pension revenue.
You may learn the total press launch from the DWP here.
Labour pronounces evaluate of state pension age
Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, has introduced the following statutory authorities evaluate into the retirement age as she launched a brand new pension fee amid issues over retirement financial savings.
The fee is predicted to supply suggestions for find out how to enhance retirement revenue in 2027.
The state pension age is 66 and is already anticipated to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028.
Kendall stated she was “underneath no illusions” about how tough it will be to map out plans for pensions for the approaching many years amid cost-of-living pressures.
Giving a speech in west London, she stated:
Put merely, until we act, tomorrow’s pensioners will probably be poorer than immediately’s, as a result of people who find themselves saving aren’t saving sufficient for his or her retirement.
And crucially, as a result of nearly half of the working age inhabitants isn’t saving something for his or her retirement in any respect.
Ministers to revive Blair-era Pensions Fee to deal with financial savings disaster
Joanna Partridge
Joanna Partridge is a Guardian enterprise reporter
The federal government is resurrecting the Pensions Fee, amid fears {that a} retirement disaster might imply immediately’s employees will probably be poorer in retirement than the present crop of pensioners.
The transfer by ministers to revive the landmark fee, established by Tony Blair’s government in 2002, comes as evaluation reveals that the revenue of pensioners is ready to fall within the coming many years.
There are warnings that individuals who plan to retire in 2050 will obtain £800 a 12 months on common, or 8% much less personal pension revenue than these retiring immediately. In the meantime, 4 in 10, or almost 15 million folks, should not saving sufficient for his or her retirement, in response to evaluation by the Division for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The revived Pensions Fee will look at the long-term way forward for the retirement system and make suggestions for change. Labour hopes its proposals, resulting from be reported in 2027, will acquire cross-party assist and be enacted past the present parliament.
Liz Kendall, the secretary of state for work and pensions, stated she was relaunching the fee to “deal with the obstacles that cease too many saving within the first place”.
You may learn the total story right here:
We now have some extra response to Reform’s crime plans (see opening post for particulars).
The shadow atmosphere minister, Robbie Moore has criticised the proposals as “headline politics” missing intimately.
He told GB News this morning:
What we’re completely not seeing, dare I say, from Reform, is the extent of element that gives that reassurance past headline politics.
It’s all very nicely popping out with headline politics and a story at a Westminster stage, however dare I say, with no lack of awareness, with no lack of element of how that will probably be carried out at a grassroots stage that’s going to be benefiting, all of these constituents which can be being negatively impacted from an enormous quantity of delinquent behaviour that we’re seeing, and legislation and order challenges that we’re seeing, not solely right here in London, however proper throughout the nation.
Shortly after changing into prime minister final July, Keir Starmer stated the state of the jail service in England and Wales his authorities had inherited from Rishi Sunak was “unforgiveable”, condeming earlier Conservative administrations for failing to construct sufficient new prisons because the jail inhabitants ballooned as a results of more durable sentences and courtroom backlogs.
Labour has promised to “take back our streets” by halving charges of significant crime and has promised to scale back courtroom backlogs, and rent extra law enforcement officials (which might truly worsen the backlogs by creating extra felony instances …). To ease the jail overcrowding disaster, prisoners in England and Wales, together with some severe offenders, will probably be eligible for launch after serving a 3rd of their sentence – in the event that they behave nicely – underneath new reforms.
Authorities launches Orgreave inquiry, 40 years after clashes at miners’ strike
In different information, the federal government has introduced {that a} statutory inquiry into the violent confrontation at Orgreave throughout the 1984 miners’ strike will probably be established later this 12 months.
The inquiry, anticipated to launch within the autumn, will examine the occasions surrounding clashes on the Orgreave Coking Plant in South Yorkshire on 18 June 1984, which triggered 120 accidents.
In complete, 95 picketers had been arrested and initially charged with riot and violent dysfunction, however all fees had been later dropped after proof was discredited.
The inquiry will probably be statutory with powers to compel folks to supply data the place obligatory, the House Workplace stated.
Joe Rollin, from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC), based by strike veterans and activists in 2012, who has been calling for an inquiry for over a decade, stated he was “cautiously elated” by the information.
Helena Horton
Helena Horton, an atmosphere reporter for the Guardian, explains how the federal government has reacted to the much-anticipated last report from the Unbiased Water Fee. Here’s a snippet from her story:
The federal government is predicted to undertake the advice for England and Wales made within the evaluate it commissioned from Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor of the Financial institution of England, which was launched on Monday.
Critics have stated Ofwat has presided over a tradition of underinvestment in infrastructure and monetary mismanagement by water firms since its creation in 1989, when the trade was privatised.
Thames Water, essentially the most troubling case for the federal government and the UK’s largest water firm, is loaded with £20bn in debt and struggling to stave off monetary collapse right into a particular administration, a type of non permanent nationalisation.
Cunliffe’s evaluate steered a brand new regulator, with powers to “direct”, or take management of, failing water companies.
Talking on BBC Radio 4’s Right now Programme, Cunliffe stated Ofwat had “failed” as a result of “for a few years it didn’t have the powers”. He added: “To be blunt about it, it was directed by authorities to take a lightweight contact to regulation.”
Cunliffe stated the complexities of the water trade required “a broader, much less monolithic and a much less desk-based strategy to financial regulation and to the oversight of firms’ efficiency in opposition to their licences”.
Emma Hardy, the minister for water and flooding, stated the federal government would spend the summer season inspecting how most of the report’s 88 suggestions to undertake.
A significant evaluate into the water sector in England and Wales says the regulator Ofwat needs to be scrapped.
Sir John Cunliffe, writer of the report, tells @JustinOnWeb Ofwat was ‘inspired by authorities to take a light-touch strategy to laws’.
#R4Today— BBC Radio 4 Right now (@BBCr4today) July 21, 2025
Main evaluate into England and Wales’ water sector says regulator needs to be scrapped
Ofwat, the water regulator for England and Wales, needs to be overhauled and changed by an “built-in” watchdog for the trade, in response to an impartial evaluate of oversight of the sector led by former Financial institution of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe.
The report, commissioned amid mounting public anger about air pollution, rising payments and government pay, says Ofwat needs to be changed by a single physique in England and one other one in Wales.
The report additionally advises eradicating the regulatory roles of the Atmosphere Company and Pure England, which monitor the sector’s influence on nature, reminiscent of firms illegally dumping sewage into waterways.
As an alternative, a “joined-up” and “highly effective” single built-in water regulator needs to be established, in response to the suggestions.
The report additionally proposes stronger regulation on abstraction, sludge, ingesting water requirements and water provide.
You may learn extra on what was contained inside the main evaluate in our business live blog.
Farage’s plans to reform felony justice system criticised forward of speech
Good morning and welcome to our dwell protection of UK politics.
Nigel Farage is to put out plans that he claims would finish all early launch schemes for intercourse offenders and severe violent offenders if he had been to turn into prime minister.
In a speech in London later immediately, the Reform UK chief may also reportedly promise to construct 30,000 new jail locations to deal with the overcrowding disaster, appoint 30,000 extra law enforcement officials inside 5 years and deport 10,400 overseas offenders at present in British jails.
He has not stated how these insurance policies will probably be funded and can probably face questions on how he would negotiate return agreements for overseas offenders.
A few of his guarantees – like sending a number of the most severe criminals to abroad jails, together with in El Salvador – may also probably face severe authorized obstacles in the event that they had been ever realised.
Farage, whose Reform get together is main many polls, was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as having stated:
Reform UK would be the hardest get together on legislation and order this nation has ever seen. We are going to lower crime in half. We are going to take again management of our streets, we’ll take again management of our courts and prisons.
We expect extra particulars on Reform’s plans at round 11am. Reform’s try and woo voters with a troublesome on crime message stands in distinction to the proposals just lately steered by Sir Brian Leveson, a former senior choose who was requested by the Lord Chancellor to provide you with methods to scale back the backlog of instances within the felony courts.
Recommendations in the report included elevated use of out-of-court resolutions, higher use of rehabilitation programmes and well being intervention programmes and rising the utmost discount for getting into a responsible plea on the first alternative from 33% to 40%.
Diana Johnson, the policing minister, stated that Reform is just not severe about implementing actual modifications to the felony justice system because the get together “voted to attempt to block measures to crack down on knife crime, delinquent behaviour, store theft and baby sexual abuse”.
“They need to focus extra on sensible options to assist our police, fight crime, ship justice for victims of crime, quite than chasing headlines, spouting slogans and attempting to divide communities,” she added.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
09.45am: Sir Jon Cunliffe, Unbiased Water Fee chair, to provide speech.
11am: Nigel Farage to make a speech in London on the felony justice system.
13:00pm: Orgreave Fact and Justice Marketing campaign press convention in Sheffield.
14.30pm: Keir Starmer to look on the Liaison Committee.
