Labour

Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Social Care and Mental Health, commenting on the prosecution in relation to neglect at Mossley Manor Care Home in Liverpool, said:

“The neglect and poor care of the residents at this care home is shocking. With the CQC saying that there was ‘a continued and serious risk’ to the lives, health and wellbeing of residents, it is welcome that the owners have been prosecuted.”

“There are wider questions for the Government on just how this level of neglectful care was allowed to develop unchecked. The Government must ensure our care system does not allow standards to fall to the level found at this care home, leaving residents exposed to harm and neglect.”

“Theresa May must use her first Budget as Prime Minister to provide the NHS and social care sector with the funding desperately needed to provide the very best quality of care. That’s the test on the NHS that her budget must meet this week.

“Theresa May used to make a virtue of her rows with the police and said she had no sympathy with those managing her budget cuts but she can’t take the same unsympathetic, derisive approach to NHS funding. The test of her first Budget this week therefore is whether she will signal a different approach to the NHS.

“At the very least the Government should bring forward £2 billion of emergency funding for social care and make clear as soon as possible how this money is going to be used to increase capacity and take some of the pressure off NHS hospitals, so that patients and their families never have to go through a winter like this again.”

Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Social Care and Mental Health, commenting on reports of funding for social care in the forthcoming budget, said:

“Reports of any additional money for social care are of course welcome, but the reality is that it is the Tories who have spent the last 7 years cutting billions from council budgets. This has meant the loss of £5 billion for adult social care.

“Labour is calling on the government to put £2 billion into the budget for social care. There is also an urgent need for a longer-term funding plan to get social care out of the current crisis and on to a more stable footing”

ENDS

Labour analysis, using House of Common’s Library endorsed modelling, shows that average real earnings are set to fall by just under £1,100 a year, or £21 a week, as a result of rising inflation and lower wage growth.

Inflation has been rising since last summer, with the OBR forecasting in the 2016 Autumn Statement that inflation is set to jump this year and next year. At the same time average earnings was revised down last year, this year and for the next two years.

The combination of higher prices and lower wages is that living standards are being squeezed.

This time last year, at the Budget 2016, the OBR was forecasting real average earnings growth of 9 per cent between 2015 and 2020 (average earnings adjusted for CPI inflation). However, at the 2016 Autumn Statement this was revised down to growth of 5 per cent between 2015 and 2020.

Converting this to income values, Budget 2016 was forecasting that real average earnings would be almost £2,500 higher in 2020 than in 2015. However, at the 2016 Autumn Statement this was revised down to £1,400. This is a difference of just under £1,100 a year, or £21 a week.

Today’s analysis comes on the back of IFS analysis last year which showed that the “outlook for living standards has deteriorated rather sharply”, between Budget 2016 and Autumn Statement 2016, describing the prospects for real earnings growth as “dreadful”.

The Resolution Foundation has also said that the “outlook for living standards in 21^st century Britain does not look promising” and that “weak and regressive nature of income growth in the years ahead should concern us all”. 

This analysis looks at the effect on living standards resulting from changes to OBR forecasts at the last Autumn Statement. Tax and benefit changes, as well as previous OBR forecasts will impact on living standards; however, this analysis focuses on the Government’s last fiscal event and therefore highlights the importance that the upcoming Budget could have on living standards.

Commenting, John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, said:

“Today’s analysis shows the impact of seven years of Tory economic failure.

“Living standards are being squeezed and working people are being hit hard. This is despite the Tories promising at the last General Election that they would raise living standards.

“The truth is that Theresa May has failed working people; with a lower National Living Wage than promised just 12 months ago and massive cuts to Universal Credit still in the pipeline.

“Only Labour will take the action needed to end the Tories’ economic failure by introducing a Real Living Wage of £10 an hour by 2020.“

ENDS

Angela Rayner MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, responding to the Sunday Times article suggesting that the Budget will contain new money for skills, said:                                            

“Any new funding for vocational education is welcome but it is on this Chancellor’s watch that colleges are facing closure due to soaring deficits.

“Much of the Chancellor’s plans have already been announced elsewhere, and the T-Levels simply formalise the 15 technical education routes that already exist. 

“The idea that this will reverse years of Tory neglect is laughable. It is very much the minimum needed to address the new skills challenges of Brexit.”