National Living Wage lift is not without cost to some workers and economy
The first of April marks the turn of the financial year as well as Fool's Day, but the cost of living increases arriving this month are no joke.
Combined water, energy, council tax and communications bills are rising almost £450 for average households, more of a gut punch than a punchline for already stretched households.
The increase is largely driven by a long-delayed correction in water bills and energy price fluctuations, but there is some consolation on the other side of the ledger, with household incomes also rising across the board, a trend ministers are predictably seeking to highlight.
Money latest: Most household bills rising today
Pensioners have become used to the triple-lock delivering income growth and this year's 4.1% settlement amounts to an additional £471 a year for those on the new state pension.
Wages more generally, meanwhile, have been rising faster than inflation for almost two years, and were running at 5.6% in January (though individual pay packets are determined by employers).
The most impactful change however is to the National Living Wage (NLW), up 6.7% this month, worth £1,386 a year more to someone working a 40-hour week, who can now pull down an annual salary of more than £23,000.
The NLW is one of the more strikingly effective public policy interventions of the last 30 years.
Backed by governments of all stripes (as popular measures that cost the state nothing tend to be) it has delivered more money to young and lower-paid workers without causing the unemployment spike of which some warned when it was introduced in 1998.
Guided by the Low Pay Commission, it last year achieved the goal for which it was established, to lift the minimum wage to two-thirds of the median salary.
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That is not to say it is without cost. The increases are a burden to employers, one that is felt more keenly this year with the imminent halving of the employer national insurance threshold increasing annual costs by more than £700 per-NLW employee.
There are also pressures further up the pay scale, with wage "compression" requiring employers to pay everyone more, as lower earners close the gap on their more senior peers.
Economists warn there is also a danger that higher wages disincentivise companies from taking a risk on younger and traditionally cheaper workers, and instead target the experienced and already employed.
There is also the question of what it means for graduates, who will emerge from higher education with improved long-term prospects, but laden with debt and looking at starting salaries not a lot higher than they may have earned in their part-time summer jobs.
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How England's orchards reached crisis point – and what they must do to survive
'As a child of the Blitz, Dad used to run around the orchards in Cambridgeshire scrumping apples,' says Anna Gazeley, inspecting an apple seedling she's cultivating. 'And then he came back after a life working abroad, and noticed that the only orchards he could see were on signposts for new housing estates. It completely devastated him, this thought that the vision of the English countryside he'd cherished in his mind had just completely gone.' Albert Gazeley was far from alone in feeling this loss so keenly. The decline in British orchard acreage is now approaching crisis point. A recent ongoing survey by the People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), part-funded by Natural England (a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), revealed that a staggering 90 per cent of traditional orchards have been lost since the 1950s, due to neglect, development or conversion. When the National Trust published its own report using some of PTES' data, it found that the total number of orchards – including more commercial operations – had halved since 1900. 'There is a genuine crisis of confidence in the industry,' said Ali Capper, executive chair of fruit grower association British Apples & Pears (BAPL), in response to recent rises in employers' National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage. 'We urgently need policies that will shore up investment and growth in the sector before we start to lose more orchards from the British countryside.' And that's before you even reach a traditional orchard like Anna Gazeley's. Her father was so determined to preserve Coton Orchard that he bought it 30 years ago, halting development and safeguarding Cambridgeshire's fruit-growing heritage. By many measures, it's been a success: the 60-acre, 100-year-old site now grows 26 varieties of apples and has been designated a 'habitat of principal importance', home to several protected species. And yet Gazeley is now fighting Cambridgeshire County Council's plans to run a busway straight through the middle of it. Campaigners have come together as the Coton Busway Action Group, and there will be a public enquiry in September – although they remain nervous that any positive verdict could be overturned by the Secretary of State. 'It's the largest traditional orchard left in Cambridgeshire,' says Gazeley. 'We make some juice, we donate apples to food banks, we're working with a cider producer up the road, too, and we leave some to windfall, which is amazing for migrating birds.' That last point is crucial: Coton Orchard isn't a commercial enterprise supplying crates of fruit to Tesco. What it is, however, is a haven for biodiversity, home to a number of rare species of plants, invertebrates and birds – 256 terrestrial invertebrates have been recorded (15 of which are of conservation concern), including the dark crimson underwing moth, alongside 28 bird species on the red and amber lists. This richness isn't just due to the windfall apples – it's largely thanks to the dead wood habitats that free-standing fruit trees provide. No wonder it holds a special place in the hearts of the local community – as many smaller orchards across the country do. And yet, when planning officials first assessed the site, they labelled it 'unproductive agricultural land'. 'When councillors and inspectors make comments like that, they're only looking at the money,' says Gazeley. 'My background is in auditing, so I look at the balance sheet and think 'what the hell am I doing', too. 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