Burnham’s shopping list of announcements yesterday will cost the taxpayer hundreds of billions if implemented. Guido has added up the measures, and once they are running the bill comes to between £26 billion and £36.5 billion a year. The equivalent of adding around 3p to 4.5p to the basic rate of income tax…
The biggest single item is the ‘National Care Service’, which is estimated to cost at least £18.5 billion a year. That excludes new demand, so the likely figure is even higher. Burnham claimed changes to the triple lock will help pay for it, yet the IFS warned this morning it won’t even touch the sides. A council housebuilding programme on the post-war scale he promised would need around £8 billion a year, and his youth guarantees add a further £3 billion to £6 billion a year. Billions here, billions there…
Over the ten years Burnham keeps talking about (the last PM to last ten years left office nearly two decades ago), the total runs from £135 billion to a stratospheric £260 billion. Nationalising water could add up to £100 billion more, according to Defra’s own analysis. Pure Corbynism…
Burnham said in his main conference speech: “For the historic victory he achieved for us, I am here to say: thank you, Keir.”