Portrait of the week: Rise in sick leave, more rights for renters and moving mountains

Home

The number of people not working due to long-term sickness rose to a record 2.5 million, many with mental sickness or back pain, according to the Office for National Statistics. Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said that income tax could be cut by 2p in the pound if Britons who had left the workforce during the pandemic returned to work. Pay growth in the public sector rose to 5.6 per cent, the highest rate since 2003. Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing union, said that the Health Secretary should ‘start off in double figures’ in pay negotiations. The Bank of England expected inflation to be as high as 5 per cent by the end of the year and for the economy to continue growing, not fall into a long recession as it forecast six months ago. It raised interest rates to 4.5 per cent from 4.25