Minister insists ‘those with broadest shoulders should carry greatest burden' over wealth tax
'We've always been clear as a government that those with the broadest shoulders should carry the greatest burden,' the minister told Sky News on Tuesday morning (8 July).
Ms Alexander added that scrapping the non-dom tax status is one example of measures taken to tax the most well-off, along with imposing VAT on private school fees and introducing higher taxes on private jets.
'We believe that even if you are born elsewhere, but you live in the UK, you should be paying your fair share of tax,' she said.
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Reuters
17 minutes ago
- Reuters
OPEC+ makes another large oil output hike in market share push
LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - OPEC+ agreed on Sunday to raise oil production by 547,000 barrels per day for September, the latest in a series of accelerated output hikes to regain market share, as concerns mount over potential supply disruptions linked to Russia. The move marks a full and early reversal of OPEC+'s largest tranche of output cuts plus a separate increase in output for the United Arab Emirates amounting to about 2.5 million bpd, or about 2.4% of world demand. Eight OPEC+ members held a brief virtual meeting, amid increasing U.S. pressure on India to halt Russian oil purchases - part of Washington's efforts to bring Moscow to the negotiating table for a peace deal with Ukraine. President Donald Trump said he wants this by August 8. In a statement following the meeting, the group cited a healthy economy and low stocks as reasons behind its decision. The eight countries are scheduled to meet again on Sept. 7, when they may consider reinstating another layer of output cuts totalling around 1.65 million bpd, two OPEC+ sources said following Sunday's meeting. Those cuts are currently in place until the end of next year. OPEC+ includes 10 non-OPEC oil producing countries, most notably Russia and Kazakhstan. The group, which pumps about half of the world's oil, had been curtailing production for several years to support oil prices. It reversed course this year in a bid to regain market share, spurred in part by calls from U.S. President Donald Trump for OPEC to ramp up production. The eight began raising output in April with a modest hike of 138,000 bpd, followed by larger-than-planned hikes of 411,000 bpd in May, June and July, 548,000 bpd in August and now 547,000 bpd for September. Oil prices have nonetheless remained elevated with Brent crude closing near $70 a barrel on Friday, up from a 2025 low of near $58 in April, supported by part by rising seasonal demand. As well as the voluntary cut of about 1.65 million bpd from the eight members, OPEC+ still has a 2-million-bpd cut across all members, which also expires at the end of 2026.
The Guardian
17 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Legal aid cyber-attack has pushed sector towards collapse, say lawyers
Lawyers have warned that a cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency has pushed the sector into chaos, with barristers going unpaid, cases being turned away and fears a growing number of firms could desert legal aid work altogether. In May, the legal aid agency announced that the personal data of hundreds of thousands of legal aid applicants in England and Wales dating back to 2010 had been accessed and downloaded in a significant cyber-attack. Three months on, much of the legal aid system remains offline as services are being rebuilt, with lawyers unable to access records or bill for their services, particularly in civil cases. Chris Minnoch, the chief executive of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, said he had had members calling him in tears, staying up into the night waiting for payments to come through and having to negotiate extended overdrafts. 'Lots of barristers and solicitors are saying to us: this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. We wouldn't be surprised that by the time things are eventually fixed, there will be fewer [legal aid] providers because people just can't take the stress any more,' he said. Although the Legal Aid Agency has set up a contingency payment system, where legal aid practitioners can apply for weekly payments equivalent to the average they were paid in the three months running up to the hack, many said it was not enough. One barrister working primarily on legal aid cases, who asked not to be named, said they were offered only £9.50 a week under the contingency scheme. 'Its obviously really laughable and I know a lot of colleagues were offered a very low rate,' they said. 'I am still doing legal aid work, but financially I am not in a good position. I've had to think about other forms of income, rely more on my partner, and I'm just not able to afford certain things that I would otherwise. 'It's particularly had a really massive impact on barristers from working-class backgrounds.' Jenny Beck KC, of Beck Fitzgerald, which specialises in supporting victims of domestic abuse, said the contingency payments had enabled the legal firm to keep going, but could cause a headache further down the line. 'They are based on a guesstimate, so if we underclaim or overclaim, we'll be in some difficulty,' she said. 'We're literally flying blind in an area where there's no margin to play with. So from a business perspective, it's deeply dangerous.' She said lawyers were spending at least an extra two hours on each case due to online systems being down and they were having to turn away more people as a result. 'The bottom-line impact is that we can look after fewer clients because our processing times for everything are longer,' she said. 'We now have to keep a manual note of everything; we've gone back to paper which we're later going to have to input. 'We've got no management information, we've got no control over our cashflow, and everyone at the frontline is beleaguered and exhausted because their administrative hours have doubled and they're able to help less people.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion She also said the hack had badly damaged trust with vulnerable clients. 'The people who are at most risk and who need confidentiality like nobody else, we're telling them, well, we've been putting your stuff into an unsafe system,' she said. 'It's a major erosion of trust.' There have long been concerns about legal aid 'deserts' as lawyers have gradually withdrawn from services due to lack of funding, and there are fears the long-term consequence of the hack will be less access to justice for the most vulnerable in society. 'We're constantly forced to turn away work because we just don't have capacity to, and that was happening even before the hack just because of the limited funding of legal aid,' said Abbi Hart, the co-chair of Young Legal Aid Lawyers. 'This is just going to make it worse. The system was in a pretty bad way beforehand, now it's even more concerning.' A Legal Aid Agency spokesperson said: 'We apologise for the disruption the changes to payment processes made in response to the cyber attack have caused. We understand the difficulties this is causing civil legal aid providers and are working as quickly as possible to restore online systems. 'A contingency system is in place and barristers and solicitors can use our simple escalation process if they feel the average pay figure is inaccurate.'
Telegraph
17 minutes ago
- Telegraph
John Lewis threatens to slash affordable flats
John Lewis may slash the number of affordable flats at its new rental home scheme in Reading if the project faces hold-ups, local councillors have been told. Advisers for John Lewis Partnership warned that any planning delays and further demands on funding provided to local services risked making the scheme unviable. In a letter to Reading councillors, building consultants at DS2, who conducted a review for John Lewis, said the new flat scheme would already cost more to build than it was worth on paper, meaning John Lewis would not be able to 'viably provide any affordable housing'. John Lewis has committed to making 10pc of the flats at its 170-home rental development in Reading affordable and available at lower rents. However, they said this was conditional on the council approving the scheme 'within a reasonable timeframe'. John Lewis first submitted the plans for the scheme almost a year ago. DS2 said any requests for further contributions, such as new demands for extra funding of local services, would also be 'reflected in any reconsideration of the affordable housing final commitment at that time'. It is the latest sign of trouble for Labour's ambitions to 'turn the tide on the housing crisis', as developers grapple with demands to build cheaper homes at a time of sky-high building costs. Earlier this month, Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary, said she wanted to provide the biggest boost to the number of social and affordable homes across the country in a generation. However, developers say they are facing hold-ups in planning applications, with builders waiting an average of 515 days – nearly a year and a half – for so-called Section 106 agreements to be finalised. This is where developers and local authorities must negotiate agreements on funding for public infrastructure such as schools, roads or affordable homes. The waiting time for the negotiations has increased by a fifth over the past two years. John Lewis has already faced local opposition to its Reading home scheme. Earlier this year, The Telegraph revealed NHS officials said they would need more funding to cope with an influx of new patients from the John Lewis flats. They argued local GP surgeries would be overwhelmed by the new housing scheme. At the time, the council said it was working with John Lewis to 'achieve the right outcome for Reading and its residents, which may include additional funding to help meet identified public health needs in the area'. John Lewis said it was in talks with Reading Council, and would 'agree the payment which councils normally receive from developments to fund local services and infrastructure'. Since then, John Lewis has reduced the size of the rental scheme. Last month, the company submitted revised plans for the development, including cutting down the number of homes to 170 from 215. John Lewis Partnership's director of build-to-rent, Katherine Russell, said at the time: 'It's very important to us that we deliver the best possible scheme and one that benefits the community.' The Reading scheme is one of three rental home developments being pursued by John Lewis, with the other two having faced setbacks before being given the green light. John Lewis was forced to launch an appeal with the Government's planning inspector to get approval for its West Ealing, London, scheme after the council failed to make a decision. Its project in Bromley, meanwhile, faced a backlash from locals and councillors, although the development was ultimately approved last year. A spokesman for John Lewis said: 'We're committed to providing as much affordable housing for Reading as is viable. We're working constructively with the Council on our plans to transform this brownfield site with high-quality rental homes.'
