The new campaign is chaired by Oliver Lewis, former deputy chief Brexit negotiator. It finds rejoining the European Union “would cost the UK £39.3 billion a year in contributions, or £750 million a week.” It says this is for three reasons:
The bat signal has gone up…
Varun Chandra, No10’s business adviser, is hiring two new SpAds. On LinkedIn…
He said the “No10 Business, Investment and Trade Unit is recruiting two special advisers to work at the intersection of public policy, business and politics.” Safe to say this new LinkedIn trend has never been standard practice…
No10’s new SpAds will respectively cover business and investor engagement and ‘private sector relations’. Can’t polish a…
Businesses have of course mostly given up on Labour after the sham charm offensive by Reeves and Starmer. The job ad details themselves reveal a difficulty with engagement and structure in the government’s business approach but this is by Guido’s count the third time SpAds have been hired in public and on LinkedIn instead of through the usual back channels to faithful apparatchiks. How has the party not cultivated talent in the last 16 years…
No10 North and the Home Office have both hired this way already. Numerous SpAds Labour brought into the Burnham government post-transition were around in 2024 when Labour won but were passed up by Starmer’s team because they were not deemed good enough. Starmer’s SpAds stayed on in large numbers too. No10 has already been struggling to fill its policy unit. Looking for talent outside means there is none in the tent…
Rayner’s department can’t even manage the artificially lower target of 37% office attendance that it set itself. MHCLG ministers said in Parliament in response to Tory David Simmonds:
“The Department expects colleagues to attend the office 50% of the time, except in four of our offices where attendance is capped at 40% due to capacity constraints. Once these capacity limits, agreed attendance exceptions and periods of leave are taken into account, our overall attendance target for July to September 2026 was 37%. During that quarter, we achieved 36% attendance, just one percentage point below the adjusted target.
The Department has clear guidance in place setting out office attendance expectations and regularly monitors office attendance for its employees as well as capacity utilisation. We are continuing to work collectively to support consistent application of the policy and to ensure that all staff benefit from the collaboration and learning opportunities that face-to-face working provides.”
Meanwhile Rayner is imposing 100% illegal migrant attendance on the village of Piddington…
From 1 April 2028, the legal owner of any home in England worth £2 million or more at 2026 values pays a yearly charge on top of council tax. The Valuation Office, now part of HMRC, is deciding which homes are in and which band they sit in. Here is a basic timetable:
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Now to autumn 2027 | VO builds its list using a computer valuation model checked by a valuer |
| Autumn 2027 | VO publishes a draft list, owners can appeal and correct facts |
| March 2028 | First bills go out |
| 1 April 2028 | Charge starts, there is an 8-month window to challenge your band opens |
| 2033 | First revaluation, then every 5 years |
Guido has produced a guide on what to do in this process. Don’t let them get away with it…
Initial Steps
When an inspector comes to your home
Formal notices
If HMRC goes to tribunal for entry
Challenge the draft band
Challenge and appeal
Once the final list is out, you have eight months to challenge your band with the Valuation Office. If it says no, you can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal for England for no cost:
| Stage | Your deadline | Govt deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Band challenge to the Valuation Office | 8 months from the first list and 6 months for later bands or new owners | 4 months to decide |
| Band appeal to the Valuation Tribunal | 3 months from the Valuation Office decision | None set |
| Liability challenge to the council | No time limit | 2 months to decide |
| Liability appeal to the Valuation Tribunal | 2 months from the council’s decision, or 4 months from first contact if it never replies | None set |
| Appeal to the High Court, on a point of law only | 4 weeks from the tribunal’s decision | None set |
Other options
Good luck…
With the right at each other’s throats like this on immigration, Labour will be rubbing their hands…
Mail commentator Dan Hodges – who was kind to Burnham during the Makerfield campaign – now concludes: “The truth is Andy Burnham doesn’t have a 10 year plan. He’s barely got a 10 week plan.“