News

Taxes up, spending up – It’s Reeves’ gig gamble

Published

1 year ago

October 30, 2024

THE HEADLINE from today’s Budget is a £40bn increase in taxes.

However, those tax increases are aimed at wealth, investment income, and businesses rather than standard-rate income taxpayers.

For the latter, the minimum wage rose, the price of draught beer was cut, the freeze in income tax thresholds will end, fuel duty will not rise, and the government is forecast to pump £70bn into public services and national infrastructure.

For small businesses, the Chancellor promised to “permanently lower business rate multiplies” for retail and hospitality businesses, cutting the amount of money High Street business pay in rates.

However, the Chancellor giveth and the Chancellor taketh away.

Rachel Reeves said that the employers’ NI rate will increase to 15 per cent from April next year.

In addition, the threshold at which employers start paying NI on each employee’s salary will drop from £9,100 to £5,000.

Those decisions represent a massive tax raid with massive potential impacts on prices (up), wages (lower), and hiring decisions.

Ms Reeves said that the increase in the employers’ NI rate, combined with the lowering of thresholds, would raise £25m for public services.

However, she sugared the pill, also announcing the employment allowance will rise from £5,000 to £10,500.

The Chancellor said: “This means 865,000 employers won’t pay any national insurance at all next year, and over one million will pay the same or less than they did previously.

“This will allow a small business to employ the equivalent of four full-time workers on the national living wage without paying any national insurance on their wages.”

The Chancellor also targeted wealth and inherited wealth.

Inherited pensions, formerly exempt from Inheritance Tax, will be subject to it. The threshold will be frozen (effectively, a rise). The Chancellor reintroduced the cap on lifetime pension pots, which was introduced and then scrapped under the Conservatives.

Farmers leaving estates worth over £1m will be subject to 20% in inheritance tax. Capital Gains Tax on shares and dividend income (unearned income) will rise from 10% to 18% for standard-income taxpayers and to 24% for higher-rate income taxpayers.

For those at the upper edges of income, there was even more bad news. The Chancellor announced the abolition of Non-Dom tax status, which allows the wealthy to duck tax on their income by claiming to be based abroad. That is unlikely to hit many taxpayers, but closing the Non-Dom loophole is an important symbolic act.

Rachel Reeves’s big gamble is that, by frontloading tax increases, there will be no need for substantial future tax rises for the next three years or so. Having boxed herself in on employee NI and income tax, Rachel Reeves left herself limited room for manoeuvre, making tax rises essential if she was to balance the books and fund unaccounted-for expenditures. As examples of the foregoing, Ms Reeves revealed that although the previous government announced compensation schemes for Post Office employees and postmasters and the victims of the contaminated blood scandal, it had not budgeted for funding them and – as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott confirmed afterwards, had no intention of standing by the public sector pay awards it announced at the Budget in March.

The second gamble is that injecting money into capital infrastructure projects will drive forward growth and economic activity. If that happens, it will buck a two-decade-long trend of stagnation and industrial failure. If that works, Labour will reap the benefits; if it doesn’t, and if public services do not improve markedly, Labour will suffer.

Crime

Man charged with strangulation and assault offences after October incident

Published

9 hours ago

December 14, 2025

Court Reporter

A MAN recorded in court as having no fixed abode has appeared before magistrates charged with intentional strangulation and two further assault offences.

Michael Sudbury, 50, whose address was not read out in court, but in Herald records is Glan Hafan, Llangwm, appeared before the bench facing multiple charges.

The charges relate to an incident on 22 October 2025 and include:

Intentional strangulation, contrary to section 75A of the Serious Crime Act 2015
Common assault
Assault by beating

No further details of the alleged incident were opened in court, and no plea was entered at this stage.

Sudbury was remanded on conditional bail, with the case listed to return to magistrates later this month.

Crime

Haverfordwest man sent to Crown Court on multiple serious charges

Published

9 hours ago

December 14, 2025

Court Reporter

Defendant remanded in custody

A HAVERFORDWEST man has been sent to Swansea Crown Court to stand trial on a series of A 49-year-old Haverfordwest resident has been committed to Swansea Crown Court to face trial on multiple serious charges deemed too grave for magistrates to handle.

David Guy, of Market Street, Haverfordwest, appeared before Haverfordwest magistrates facing a series of allegations stemming from a single case. The charges, which were not detailed in open court, include:

Assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH)
A second count of assault
Criminal damage
An additional allegation of interpersonal violence
A public order offence

Magistrates declined jurisdiction, determining that the matters exceeded their sentencing powers, and sent the case in its entirety to Swansea Crown Court.

Guy was remanded in custody pending his next appearance. The court register notes: “Sent to Crown Court for trial in custody – next hearing at Swansea Crown Court.”

A date for the initial Crown Court hearing will be set administratively. Guy will remain in custody until then.

The Pembrokeshire Herald will provide further updates as the case progresses in the Crown Court.

Crime

Castlemartin man back before magistrates over multiple alleged assaults

Published

9 hours ago

December 14, 2025

Court Reporter

Defendant remanded on conditional bail ahead of further hearing

A CASTLEMARTIN man has appeared repeatedly before magistrates this month over a string A 40-year-old man from Castlemartin has made repeated appearances before magistrates this month in connection with a series of serious alleged offences, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH), intentional non-fatal strangulation, common assault, and criminal damage.

Anthony Alcock, of Pwll Street, Castlemartin, is facing six linked charges stemming from incidents said to have occurred earlier this year. These appear to relate to the same complainant in what is understood to be a single ongoing domestic abuse prosecution.

During recent administrative hearings at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court, Alcock did not enter pleas while matters of bail and case management were addressed.

Charges Include:

Assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH)
Intentional non-fatal strangulation
Common assault on a woman
Criminal damage in a domestic context
Additional assault allegations involving the same complainant
Breach of bail conditions

Alcock was initially granted conditional bail but was subsequently brought before the court on two occasions for alleged breaches. On those instances, magistrates remanded him in custody ahead of further hearings. He was later re-granted conditional bail, subject to strict conditions such as no contact with the complainant and exclusion from specified locations.

Magistrates have now declined jurisdiction, ruling that the case—particularly the more serious charges involving non-fatal strangulation—is too grave for summary trial. It has been committed to Swansea Crown Court for plea, trial, or sentencing.

No detailed evidence has been presented in open court at this preliminary stage. Alcock remains on conditional bail pending his next appearance at the Crown Court.