Sunak and Johnson to propose 1% National Insurance hike to fund social care reforms

Liam Roche
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Sunak and Johnson to propose 1% National Insurance hike to fund social care reforms

The policy risks being an ‘intergenerational raid’

National Insurance (NI) contributions look set to rise by 1% to fund long-term care reforms, according to reports.

Boris Johnson is expected to make the plans public soon, in a move that could raise £10bn annually from both employers and employees.

It implies that the employee NI rate on earnings below £967 a week could jump from 12% to 13%.

As things stand, NI contributions are only paid by those below the UK state pension age of 66.

The policy has come under pressure as it is seen as an unfair tax on young people, who feel as though they are already disadvantaged by soaring university fees and house prices.

The tax would initially be allocated to addressing the NHS backlog in the aftermath of the pandemic. The health secretary Said Javid warned that the waiting list could jump from 5.3m to 13m people.

Jeremy Hunt, chair of the health select committee, said there was “a growing realisation that with the Covid backlog we’ll never get the NHS back on its feet without social care reform”.

Hunt added that while there were other options to raise funds, none of them were practicable.

“The attraction of a health and social care levy is it would fund the NHS backlog in the short term and desperately needed improvements in the social care system in the medium-longer term,” Hunt said in a tweet.

Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell, said the pandemic may be the crisis that finally forces politicians to take meaningful steps to address the UK’s long-term care crisis “after decades of prevarication by successive Governments”.

“However, it would also break a central Conservative manifesto commitment and leave the Government open to accusations of an intergenerational raid, with younger people paying for reforms which immediately benefit older people, most of whom won’t be subject to National Insurance,” Selby added.

“The Government may try to badge this as a ‘social care levy’ separate to National Insurance contributions. This would, on the face of it at least, keep its pledge not to raise NI rates intact – although whether or not voters would see it that way remains to be seen.”

FTSE 100 rebounds after brutal sell-off on Monday

Liam Roche
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0
FTSE 100 rebounds after brutal sell-off on Monday

The FTSE 100 added 0.75% during the morning session on Tuesday as its mood picked up following an underwhelming start to the week.

“Investors appear to have taken the view that yesterday’s global markets sell-off was overdone and now it is time to buy some of the stocks worst hit,” says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

Miners, oil producers and banks led the way on Tuesday, all sectors highly leveraged to economic activity.

“This feels more like a dead cat bounce rather than a healthy rebound as all the arguments behind yesterday’s sell-off remain today,” said Mould.

“Inflation is still a major threat and there are plenty of reasons to expect the global economic recovery to slow down.”

“There is no need to panic, but investors should remain cautious in the current environment,” Mould added.

FTSE 100 Top Movers

Rolls-Royce (3.11%), Berkley Group (2.77%) and ITV (2.45%) are leading the pack on the UK index on Monday with solid gains.

Just Eat (-3.09%), Entain (-0.91%) and National Grid (-0.75%) are the top fallers on the FTSE 100 on Tuesday.

Apollo pulls out of Morrisons takeover talks

Liam Roche
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0
Apollo pulls out of Morrisons takeover talks

Apollo could be involved as part of the Fortress offer

Apollo, the American investment company, has pulled out of the running to acquire Morrisons, as the firm changed its mind.

This stops the possibility of a bidding war in its tracks, as Fortress stepped up its own efforts in recent weeks.

Earlier this month Morrisons looked set to be taken over following a bid of £6.3m for the supermarket chain by a consortium that appears to have beat the competition to the finish line.

While the supermarket group’s directors are recommending acceptance, the offer remains subject to approval by shareholders.

Apollo said that while it does not plan to launch its own takeover bid, it could be involved as part of the Fortress offer.

Last year, Apollo missed out when it tried to acquire Asda, one of the largest supermarket companies in the UK.

Sophie Lund-Yates, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said: “Apollo is laying down its weapons and potentially joining forces with the Fortress-led syndicate. From a shareholder perspective this is disappointing, because it takes the heat out of a potential bidding war, meaning the cash offer already on the table is less likely to get pushed upwards.”

During the morning session the Morrisons share price (LON:MRW) is down by 0.13%.

Morrisons first existed as a market stall in Bradford in 1899 owned by William Morrison. His son then took over the company and opened the first supermarket in the 1960s.

EasyJet flights reach 60% of pre-pandemic levels

Liam Roche
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0
EasyJet flights reach 60% of pre-pandemic levels

EasyJet records £318m pre-tax loss in Q3

EasyJet (LON:EZJ) will increase the number of flights it operates to 60% of the amount seen before the pandemic.

The budget airline will run 1,400 flights per day between July and September.

The British company also confirmed in a trading update that during Q3 it made a £318m pre-tax loss. EasyJet confirmed that the figure was in line with its own expectations.

Compared to the same period in 2019, EasyJet operated 17% of the level of flights, carrying 3m passengers.

Its revenues came in at £212m, up from £7.2m a year earlier.

EasyJet’s customers are waiting for longer to book their flights than in previous years, as 49% of its summer flights have been booked, compared to 65% in 2019.

Following the company’s trading update, the EasyJet share price is up by 1.9% during the morning session.

Johan Lundgren, chief executive of easyJet, made recent comments on how his company has dealt with the ongoing challenges caused by the pandemic: “We have used our existing strengths like our network with renewed purpose – pivoting capacity to Europe where we saw the strongest demand.”

“The UK has had some of the toughest travel restrictions,” he said. “We know people want to fly, we know they want to travel. It’s all about the unwinding of restrictions.”

“Airlines are used to thinking on their feet and EasyJet has certainly been busy trying to find ways in which to generate as much revenue as possible during the pandemic,” says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

“Having raced to cut costs in the business, it is now shifting attention to customers in Continental Europe where there are more opportunities to make money than the UK.”

“Many companies the size of EasyJet would not be able to adapt so quickly, so credit must be given to the company for being able to shift a lot of moving parts.”

BP submits £10bn plan to build offshore wind farm in Aberdeen

Liam Roche
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0
BP submits £10bn plan to build offshore wind farm in Aberdeen

BP’s proposal could lead to thousands of new green energy jobs

BP (LON:BP) is pledging to invest £10bn to construct an offshore wind farm in Aberdeen in a move that could bring about thousands of new jobs.

Along with its partner, German energy company EnBW, the UK oil giant made a bid for a lease via ScotWind, in the first offshore wind leasing round in Scotland for over ten years.

The news comes as BP continues to be on the receiving end of protests over its continued production of fossil fuels.

The Scottish government is hopeful that wind energy and BP’s investment can help the region to bounce back from the pandemic, while providing a viable economic alternative for the oil and gas industry.

A number of traditional oil and gas companies, including Shell and Equinor, are making proposals to secure the lease before the deadline for applications comes to an end on Friday.

The Crown Estate Scotland will announce the list of winners early in 2022.

Scotland sees the process as pivotal in signalling its level of intent to become a world leader in using offshore wind technology.

BP and EnBW have also agreed to finance a renewable hub being constructed by Forth Ports in the Leith area of Edinburgh.

The FTSE 100 oil company would also increase its electric vehicle charging network to around 2,500 over the next ten years.

Dev Sanyal, BP’s executive vice president for gas and low carbon, said the company’s relationship with Aberdeen city council and its existing remote operating centre based in Aberdeen provides an opportunity the region into a global base for wind power.

“We have a partnership with Aberdeen city which we are very proud of signing in September of last year. We think this partnership will have more as a result of what we can bring in terms of offshore wind energy,” Sanyal said.

“We see a massive opportunity. We have our remote operating centre in Aberdeen today.  If you have a remote operating centre using digital tools we can create a base in Scotland that services a much larger canvas than just Scotland.”

The BP share price is up by 2.03% early on Tuesday.

New AIM: Admission Revolution Beauty

Andrew Hore
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0
New AIM: Admission Revolution Beauty

Revolution Beauty Group will pay off borrowings and be left with net cash following its AIM flotation. This can be used to raise the profile of the company and grow the business internationally. It believes it is able to compete in the market because it is nimble in spotting trends and bringing out products.
In the first three months of the new financial year sales were £41.9m. Growth is coming from online and high street stores, as well as by moving into new markets. There are also plans to launch RevolutionMAN next year.
The share price ended the first day of trading at 150p. According to in...

New AIM admission: Bradda Head

Andrew Hore
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0
New AIM admission: Bradda Head

Bradda Head Holdings Ltd is no stranger to AIM having previously joined as Copper Development Corporation in December 2010 and then after it sold its assets it became Life Science Developments but lost its quotation in 2017. The new focus is lithium.
The attraction of Bradda Head is that its projects are in the US, making it less risky than other lithium companies. Demand for batteries will continue to increase and new lithium supply will be required to satisfy that growing demand.
The projects the company has are near to existing or potential battery manufacturing facilities. There are foreca...

New AIM admission: Poolbeg Pharma

Andrew Hore
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1
New AIM admission: Poolbeg Pharma

Poolbeg Pharma is a spin-out of non-core pharma assets from Open Orphan (LON: ORPH). These are all early-stage assets and Open Orphan did not want to spend money on them.
Poolbeg’s strategy is to reposition products with existing positive clinical safety data. It will undertake trials so that sufficient data is collected to make the treatments attractive to larger pharma companies with more cash to invest.
There will be multiple treatments developed so that they are ready for phase II trials, that will then attract licensing or partnering. POLB 001 is already phase II ready and further investm...

All Active Asset bid approach for Audioboom

Andrew Hore
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0
All Active Asset bid approach for Audioboom

All Active Asset Capital Ltd (LON: AAA) should have plenty of knowledge about bid target Audioboom (LON:BOOM). One of its directors, Rodger Sargent was involved with the reversal of the business into an AIM shell and was a director for a short time. The bidder is also in the process of acquiring a stake in AAQUA, which has a 12.4% shareholding in Audioboom.
Rodger Sargent joined the board of Audioboom following the reversal of Audioboo into One Delta on 20 May 2014. He already had a shareholding in the company, and he acquired more shares at the time of the reversal to take his then stake to 1...

New standard listing: Acceler8 Ventures

Andrew Hore
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0
New standard listing: Acceler8 Ventures

Shell company Acceler8 Ventures will have £450,000 after expenses to seek a suitable acquisition candidate. The £300,000 of expenses seem high, but costs will be relatively high when a company is so small.
Adviser Tessera Investment Management has pocketed £100,000 in fees and previously subscribed £25,000 for a 3.3% stake.  It will be paid a success fee on completion of the first acquisition and will be paid fees for other services.
Patronus Partners received an introducer fee of 5% of cash it raised, and its clients hold 183,000 shares in a nominee account. That equates to just over £9,...

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