The State we’re in: could higher pay for nurses and scrapping university fees boost the economy?
This is Money Podcast
This is Money
4.1 • 650 Ratings
🗓️ 7 July 2017
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nurses have had their pay cut every year for the last five years.
Students are coming out of our universities with the highest level of debt in the West – higher on average than the USA.
Rents are totally out of control.
What then are the prospects for our youngsters and for our public sector workers?
Is austerity really going to end?
It’s complicated and there’s only one person who can explain this in simple, understandable English - Simon Lambert, who, with Georgie Frost and Lee Boyce, get to the bottom of the great public sector pay debate.
Perhaps using more taxpayers money to give nurses and firefighters a pay rise will boost the economy?
They also turn their attention to…
The ‘absolutely hideous’ university fees students face in Britain. Nine grand a year for 4 hours a week and a lifetime of debt.
A possible imminent interest rates rise and how one prepares for a battering on your costs of living.
And with the dream of home ownership for graduates now pretty much over, rents are in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. What to do?
Enjoy.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to This Is Money Show, your weekly roundup of the top personal finance, consumer and business stories that editors Simon Lambert and his team have been covering on their award-winning website. I'm your host, Georgie Frost, here alongside Simon and I is Consumer Affairs Editor Lee Boyce. And on the agenda today, magic money trees and epic Greek style collapses, not new |
| 0:23.4 | children's stories for an austerity era. We're actually talking about the public sector pay cap, |
| 0:28.9 | back on the political agenda with gusto, but can the country afford a multi-billion pound wage |
| 0:35.2 | increase for our teachers and nurses and could it be done without tax hikes? |
| 0:39.3 | Also, we celebrate or commiserate 10 years without a single rate rise from the Bank of England. |
| 0:44.3 | Is one imminent? If so, what can you do to protect yourself? |
| 0:48.3 | We also look at the impact of rising student fees, explore another North-South divide, and have some top tips on getting your dream house for a dream price. |
| 0:58.6 | All that and plenty more coming up and don't forget, you can stay up to date with all the latest breaking money news. |
| 1:03.1 | Just go to this ismoney.com.uk or download the app. |
| 1:07.0 | But first, the row over the public sector pay gap turned up a significant notch this week after a number of cabinet ministers came out in favour of scrapping it. |
| 1:15.6 | The tough austerity measure was placed on 5 million workers, including teachers, nurses and soldiers back in 2012 when their pay was capped to just 1%. |
| 1:23.6 | And that was preceded by a two-year freeze for all but the lowest earners. |
| 1:28.3 | It meant many a thousands of pounds worse off a year as a result, not to help, of course, |
| 1:32.3 | by the rising cost of living. |
| 1:34.3 | Last week, the Chancellor said, we all value our public services under people who provide them to us |
| 1:41.3 | and went on to laud his own economic record by saying that we had a fundamentally |
| 1:46.1 | robust economy. Well, the Prime Minister found one billion pounds to keep her own job. Why can't |
| 1:54.4 | you find the same amount of money to keep nurses and teachers in their job who, after all, serve all of us? The Tories went into the election pledging to keep nurses and teachers in their job, who after all serve all of us. |
| 2:02.2 | The Tories went into the election pledging to keep the cap until 2020, |
| 2:05.8 | but given the bruising they got at the polls, many within the party are calling for a rethink. |
| 2:10.4 | Now, if it was scrapped, the Chancellor would have to have an almighty route around the back of the sofa |
| 2:14.3 | and fine upwards of £5 pounds to raise the cap. |
... |
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