Tuesday newspaper round-up: Water bills, iPhones, council tax, Audi factory
Rachel Reeves is being urged by a left-of-centre thinktank to announce changes to capital gains tax, inheritance tax and national insurance in next month’s budget that would raise more than £20bn a year for the Treasury. With the chancellor looking for ways to plug a £22bn hole that she has identified in the public finances, the Resolution Foundation said it was a time-honoured tradition that taxes were raised in the first budget after an election. – Guardian
Tuesday is the day water bills will start servicing debt and paying shareholders rather than fixing leaks and ending the sewage scandal, campaigners have said, dubbing it “cost of water privatisation day”. The public services campaign group We Own It has shared analysis from the University of Greenwich that reveals roughly 31% of money collected from water bills goes towards shareholders and paying off debts. Last financial year, an average of 11% of revenue was spent on dividends and 20% went towards servicing debts, while as of 10 September 31% of 2024 remains. – Guardian
iPhone users will be able to tell if they are losing their hearing after Apple launched a medical-grade audio test to its headphones. A software update to the company’s Airpods Pro wireless headphones will introduce a test measuring their decibel hearing levels. If the test determines that users are losing their hearing, the headphones will be able to function as a hearing aid, boosting voices in busy face-to-face conversations and phone calls. – Telegraph
Four million pensioners living alone are at risk of a council tax raid under Angela Rayner at the same time as they face losing winter fuel payments. Retirees make up around half of the 8.4m people who will be affected if the Housing Secretary abolishes a council tax break for one-person households, analysis shows. Ms Rayner, the Housing Secretary, this week refused to rule out scrapping the 25pc sole occupier discount, which cuts around £543 per year from the average Band D council tax bill in 2024-25. – Telegraph
Workers at an Audi factory in Brussels have stolen the keys to around 200 new cars at the plant in a show of anger at plans potentially to close the site. It is a further blow to Volkswagen, Audi’s parent company, which has announced that it is considering plant closures in Germany, and to the wider German automotive industry, for years renowned as the proud engine of the country’s economy and envied for possessing skilled engineers with an iron work ethic. – The Times