Boom might help UK avoid tax rise
A new analysis of Bank of England data suggests that Britain’s booming economic recovery will remove any need for tax rises as Rishi Sunak is given a £20bn growth windfall. The Times says the chancellor is likely to use the headroom in full to fulfil the Tory pledge to “end austerity” and to avoid a wealth tax. Andrew Goodwin, chief UK economist at Oxford Economics, said: “The prospect of better growth has given him more flexibility.”
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Thousands driven to work in NHS
The Covid pandemic has created a “Nightingale effect” that has increased the number of nurses, midwives and health visitors in the NHS by more than 11,000. Overall staff numbers rose by 3.5% in the year to January. “It is no surprise that given the profession’s high profile over the last year many more people have been inspired to join the NHS’s ranks by the so-called Nightingale effect,” Sir Simon Stevens told The Times.