00:00What's important to remember about Andy Burnham of course, he's not Keir Starmer. Keir Starmer when
00:06he sort of came to power just over two years ago there was a sort of expectation there was going
00:11to be a tremendous change and what we got was a sense of sort of pessimism. Yeah they came in
00:18saying that they were going to tell us the truth and of course one of the first things that was
00:21done was the sort of the cut to the sort of the heating and that's where all the adventurers went
00:26down like a sort of a bowl of vomit or something as popular as such. Andy Burnham of course is
00:32very
00:32different of course the whole sort of reason that Andy Burnham is now leader is that sort of
00:36Labour or Labour Party were sinking in the opinion polls and particularly after the local elections
00:40back in May there was a sense if they didn't do something radical you know they were going to be
00:44toast at the next election. The opinion polls so far you know there's been a moderate improvement
00:49but of course nothing that was to say that Labour would sort of win a general election. VAT on domestic
00:54electricity will be cut from 5% to zero from the 1st of October. The government expects that to reduce
01:01a typical yearly bill by around £45 with suppliers expected to pass the savings to customers on fixed
01:09and variable tariffs. Burnham has also launched a drive to end long-term rough sleeping backed by an
01:17additional £340 million. The first phase is intended to provide 1,200 homes and intensive support for at
01:25least 3,000 people led locally by councillors, mayors, health services and other agencies.
01:32Interesting sort of policies at the moment is all small beer. There have been other announcements since
01:38and of course the most or the biggest one is that sort of they want to sort of to cut
01:43the welfare bill
01:44and particularly to focus in on sort of young people who are on benefits which of course we've
01:49talked about this before. NEETS, that's gone up sort of pretty dramatically. A lot of people are long-term
01:54sort of sick. Somehow they're getting them back into the workplace and I think that's sort of the
01:58fact that there's talk about sort of changing the education system so we've got a sort of greater
02:04emphasis upon vocational education at school and that that would sort of then funnel through into
02:10sort of the higher education or certainly the FE colleges. From the 1st of January next year single
02:15bus fares on participating services in England but outside London will be capped at £2 replacing the
02:23current £3 maximum. The measure is backed by £400 million and is due to run through 2027. Scotland,
02:31Wales and Northern Ireland will receive funding through the usual devolved arrangements.
02:36From April next year pubs, social clubs and most live music venues in England are also promised a
02:4320% reduction in business rates. Almost 2,000 venues could benefit with a typical pub saving
02:49around £11,000 a year on top of existing relief. So interesting policies so far. What does it tell us
02:58about Andy Burnham or his administration? He's prepared to be sort of pretty radical but there is also perhaps
03:04to sort of to say and the social care which of course he's um it's a sort of a big
03:09issue for him
03:10particularly as his father is in social care and of course it's a major worry for many people and of
03:14course he's been mooted but nothing has been sort of um pinned down yet but there may be a 10
03:20% sort of
03:21duty uh death duty on the sort of estates when people die. Now that will be a really sort of
03:25big
03:26one and radical. Now where does all this take us? I think that Andy Burnham if he's going to sort
03:31of
03:31be remembered for the things he wants to be remembered for which of course is really changing
03:35agenda and I think he does have a really good opportunity to do this and a good level of support
03:40to sort of backbenchers then of course this is the time to sort of strike. Now of course uh parliament's
03:45not sitting but of course this may be sort of softening um the party up if you like if you
03:49think
03:49about it in those terms for when they come back in the autumn and of course we'll have the sort
03:52of
03:53conference so he's going to have to sort of get policies on the sort of statute book you know really
03:57prompt it because of course the whole point about doing this and I come back to my sort of point
04:01right at the beginning it's about the opinion polls and he's got to sort of uh you know he's
04:06going to ride that momentum but of course he's going to have opposition from sort of within the
04:11party particularly on the left if he sort of starts to sort of to tinker with the welfare system indeed
04:15I use the word tinker but of course people saying it's more than tinkering he's got to radically sort
04:20of um change that because of course the whole um aspect or the backdrop to government is huge debts
04:25and sort of the interest that's got to be paid on that so there's not a lot of money to
04:29come
04:29um or a lot of money about at the moment and of course the big question will be asked where
04:33does
04:33come from and is he going to sort of put taxes up later on the year and of course if
04:37we remember
04:37coming back to sort of keir starmer that's what rachel reeves did in order to sort of to balance the
04:42books and to sort of to put money into other budgets and of course we know where that took
04:46a labour party in terms of the opinion polls. Burnham has set a direction promising
04:52single other costs alongside action on homelessness and support for local businesses. Several measures
04:58will not begin until next year and further detail is expected at the next budget. The test for his
05:05government will be how far the funding reaches whether local services can deliver and whether
05:10households and high streets feel a lasting difference.
Comments