The vet charity for pets in need, PDSA, says the pet obesity crisis needs ‘urgent attention’ as vet teams estimate around half of UK pets are overweight – equating to around 5 million dogs and 4.7 million cats.
It comes as the charity, alongside its partner Royal Canin, visits Crufts in a bid to tackle the growing pet obesity crisis head on through its ‘Big Weigh In’ campaign.
PDSA, in partnership with Royal Canin, is inviting pet owners to book free weight checks at participating vet practices nationwide throughout February and March. There are more than 500 vet practices signed up and pet owners can find their local participating practice and book their free appointment here: pdsa.org.uk/WeighUp
“We’re all guilty of over-indulging at times, but worryingly, 36% of dog owners admit to regularly giving their pet leftovers*,” explains PDSA Vet Nurse Nina Downing.
“And while a tasty treat now and then, when considered amidst the rest of their food intake, won’t harm your pet, regularly overfeeding them could lead to serious health problems.
“Since our PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report launched over a decade ago, overweight and obese pets have always been an issue but almost half of veterinary professionals (49%) say they’ve seen an increase in pet obesity in the last two years. And a quarter say obesity is one of the top five welfare issues in dogs.
“But with more and more people owning a pet these days, especially dogs, we’re now at a point where it needs urgent attention before it gets even worse.”
New UK ISA announced at Spring Budget will encourage savers to “Back Britain” and support UK business, helping to build a stronger economy.
Generous £5,000 allowance is on top of existing £20,000 annual ISA subscription limit.
British Savings Bonds, launching in April, will offer a guaranteed interest rate fixed for three years, increasing the savings opportunities available to consumers.
British savers are set for a boost off the back of the brand-new ISA and National Savings & Investments (NS&I) product the Chancellor outlined at Spring Budget.
The new ‘UK Individual Savings Account’ will give savers an extra £5,000 of tax-free investments that must be invested in UK firms – while the British Savings Bonds product will increase opportunities for people to save for the longer term, whilst encouraging retail demand for government financing. Taken together they will foster cultures of saving and investing in the UK.
The UK ISA will ensure that savers will be able to benefit from the growth of UK businesses. This is part of a number of measures the government is taking, building on Mansion House and Autumn Statement 2023 announcements, to strengthen the UK’s capital markets, boost savings, increase pension fund transparency, and facilitate investment in UK companies.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said:“This boost for British savers also unlocks long-term investment for Britain. We are sticking to our plan to get the economy growing, and it is right that this growth is fuelled by British innovation and enterprise in the areas where our country does it best.”
The Chancellor’s approach to create a new ISA allowance to invest in the UK will avoid disrupting people’s existing portfolios while rightly incentivising those that want to back Britain and save beyond the standard £20,000 limit.
This includes investment in those burgeoning small and medium enterprises in the high-growth sectors of the future in which Britain holds comparative advantage over its European neighbours, like digital technology – including being a clear artificial intelligence superpower in the west – and the life sciences – with the largest sector in Europe.
Meanwhile, the British Savings Bonds, a three-year savings product offered through NS&I, will go on sale in early April and will be available to consumers across the UK, with a minimum investment of £500 and maximum of £1 million. Consumers will benefit from an interest rate fixed for three years that is in line with NS&I’s requirement to balance the interests of savers, taxpayers and the broader financial services sector.
The timing will coincide with the further cuts to National Insurance for 29 million working people – putting over £900 a year back into the average worker’s pocket when combined with the cuts to Employee and Self-Employed National Insurance announced at Autumn Statement.
These represent personal tax cuts worth £20 billion, reduce the effective personal tax rate for a median earner to its lowest level since 1975, and represent the next step towards the government’s long term ambition to end the unfairness that means if you get your income for having a job you pay two types of tax, but if you get it from others sources you only pay one.
As with recent fiscal events, this was a Budget where the main announcements were trailed well in advance (writes the team at FRASER of ALLANDER INSTITUTE).
The Chancellor confirmed a 2p cut to National Insurance Contributions to both employees and self-employed – a move which costs £10 billion a year and reduces taxes paid by the median Scottish employee by £342 a year.
Chart: Change in NICs annual liability for Scottish employees across the income distribution
Source: ONS, FAI calculations
Taxes are being cut… Yet rising?
But taxes as a share of national income are still going up from year from 2024-25 onwards – just by less than in the November forecast and by less than before accounting for the Chancellor’s measures. The tax-to-GDP ratio is forecast by the OBR to hit 37.1% by 2028-29, coming just under the 1948 record-high of 37.2%. This is partly because the Chancellor has used also done some targeted tax increases such as the abolition of the ‘non-doms’ regime and a new excise duty on vaping.
More broadly, however, the trajectory of the tax-to-GDP ratio is driven by the threshold freeze, which the Chancellor has left unchanged despite cutting the headline rate of NICs. These ‘stealth’ tax increases put together raise £41 billion – nearly double the amount that the Autumn Statement and Budget measures reduce taxes by. There will be 3.7 million more people brought into paying income tax than would if the personal allowance had been indexed with inflation – a 10% increase in taxpayers.
Chart: Tax-to-GDP ratio
Source: OBR
So sure, taxes won’t go up by as much as they would have done, but are still going up pretty strongly. Is that a tax cut? You decide.
How does the OBR expect the economy to perform?
Inflation has receded more quickly than expected. It should drop below the UK’s 2% target later this year.
The OBR expects inflation to slow to an average of 2.2% this year and 1.5% in 2025 before gradually returning to target at the end of the forecast period. The lower inflation forecast is driven by expected significant drops in global energy prices and weaker domestically generated inflation.
Chart: CPI inflation forecasts
Source: OBR
Lower inflation helps the UK’s growth prospects and a faster recovery in living standards from last year’s record decline.
Real household disposable income (that is, how much money households have to spend on average after taxes and benefits) is now forecast to return to pre-pandemic levels in the next year – two years earlier than previously forecast.
While the financial year 2022-23 remains the most significant year-on-year decline in living standards since the 1950s, the OBR now anticipated average annual growth of around 1 percent in living standards over the forecast period.
Chart: Real household disposable income per person forecasts
Source: OBR
This faster recovery in living standards is thanks to the reversal of the negative impact on terms of trade caused by the rise in imported energy prices, and lower inflation than expected.
Importantly for the Chancellor, the measures outlined in this Budget provide a boost to household incomes, with the reduction in the main rates of national insurance contributions alone expected to provide a direct boost of 0.5%.
This is good news for people across the country, even if it is a relatively small increase after half a decade of stagnation.
But it’s not all good news…
One of the most pessimistic parts of the OBR’s publication is the decline in the participation rate over the forecast period.
Recent data suggests that the increase in economic inactivity after the pandemic is lasting longer than expected. Although policies like childcare expansion and welfare reform are expected to increase labour supply, the impact is offset by the ‘fiscal drag’ from frozen personal tax thresholds.
As a result, the labour participation rate is projected to decline from its pre-pandemic peak of 64.3% to 62.8% by 2028.
Chart: Participation rate forecast
Source: OBR
This means that the share of people not in the labour force is expected to shrink further rather than recovering. This is not exactly brilliant news for the PM’s plan to get people ‘back to work’ and one of the drivers of medium-term economic growth.
The Chancellor made much of wanting to grow GDP per person, a better metric of how well the economy is doing than just GDP, which includes population growth – but the forecasts by the OBR are not particularly optimistic in that regard, and have been downgraded since November.
Chart: Real GDP per person
Source: OBR
The Chancellor meets his fiscal rule – but with essentially no room to spare and questionable spending assumptions
Before measures, the Chancellor already had limited headroom (£12.2bn) against his self-imposed fiscal rule of debt falling in the final year of the forecast. This is virtually wiped out by the measures in this Budget, especially after accounting for the freezing of fuel duty which we expect will continue to happen as it has in every year since 2011.
In that case, headroom would be £4.5bn against what is already a very loose fiscal rule. Such a small amount of headroom is essentially zero – even a small downward movement in the economy would mean the rule being broken.
And even the meeting of the fiscal rule in the OBR’s central forecast is predicated on what are generally held to be implausible future spending plans. There were rumours that RDEL and CDEL allocations would be squeezed further into the next Parliament – and while that hasn’t proved to be the case, the plans are pretty restrictive already, and they have been made worse still by a larger population than previously projected.
Resource spending is forecast to grow by only 2% across the whole forecast; capital, meanwhile, is projected to be cut by 8% in real terms over the next 5 years. It’s hard to see how this can be sustained throughout the next Parliament – no wonder the OBR Chair labelled them a ‘work of fiction’.
Chart: UK Government real DEL plans per person
Source: OBR, FAI analysis
What does this mean for the Scottish Government?
Barnett consequentials have been announced of £295m in 2024-25, largely due to higher spending on the NHS in England (£237m) and a larger settlement for English local government (£48m), with the latter already committed to partially pay for the council tax freeze. There is nothing additional on capital apart from small amounts from 2025-26 (less than £80m a year).
As is now customary, we have produced a handy table to guide you through the different decisions and whether or not they apply in Scotland – and if they are devolved, what the Barnett consequentials are.
Table: Devolved and reserved decisions, and Barnett consequentials
Source: OBR, HM Treasury, FAI analysis
The Scottish Budget featured a number of difficult decisions by the Scottish Government, with a particularly tough settlement on the capital side. In many ways, this remains the case – there have been no changes in CDEL allocations for the coming year, with all the consequentials coming on the resource side.
Nevertheless, and as expressed in paragraphs 1.60 and 1.61 of the Treasury’s guide on Consolidated Budgeting Guidance, the Scottish Government would be allowed to move these resource consequentials (or indeed other resource allocations) into the capital budget – just not the other way around. We’ll see whether it decides to do that for any of the additional funds.
They have a mix of seven native species available including Alder, Silver Birch, Downy Birch, Hazel, Wild Cherry and Rowan. The trees come in small paper bags with information about the species and guidance for planting.
Visit the garden between 10 am and 2 pm to secure your free tree. Staff from Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust will be at hand to answer your questions.
Mercy Cuthbertson from North Tyneside is a six-year-old girl who has enjoyed a very special experience day in Edinburgh after Newcastle-based train operator Lumo learned of her passion for the company’s bright blue trains.
Mercy is bravely fighting an aggressive paediatric brain tumour. Her parents Lorraine and Paul have already raised more than £113,000 towards a target of £120,000 for some life-saving trials abroad.
Open access train operator Lumo contacted Mercy’s parents offering a special VIP day trip to Edinburgh where the family were invited to an exclusive performance at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in the city’s Royal Mile followed by a visit to Edinburgh Castle.
Richard Salkeld, Head of Communications and Partnerships at Lumo, said: “When we heard about Mercy’s story and her love of our trains, we began to create a truly memorable experience for her and her parents.
“We teamed up with Imaginate: The Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, the Scottish Storytelling Centre and Edinburgh Castle to help organise what was a very special action-packed visit to Edinburgh.
“As a company proudly based in Newcastle, we’re committed to supporting the communities on our route so today has been a joy to help make happen for Mercy.”
As part of the visit Mercy was invited into the driver’s cab after they arrived at Edinburgh Waverley where she posed for photographs with some of the onboard team from Lumo.
Lorraine Cuthbertson, Mercy’s mother, said: “Today has been incredible. We’ve been made to feel so welcome and enjoyed some magnificent magical moments that we’ll never forget. Mercy loved her visit to the driver’s cab on the train and meeting the unicorn at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.”
The whirlwind visit to Edinburgh was Mercy’s first time travelling on the all-electric Lumo train. She posed with a specially made giant ticket as a memento of her day before boarding at Newcastle on Friday morning.
Paul Cuthbertson, Mercy’s father, said: “She’s had a brilliant day and has been treated like royalty. It’s been so special, and I think everyone had a tear in her eye when she reached out and stroked the unicorn who she named Twinkle. Thanks to everyone who helped make today so unforgettable.”
Mercy’s fundraising campaign continues to receive generous support from people in the North East but has also received donations from around the world as her parents work tirelessly to raise funds in a bid to do all they can to help Mercy.
For anyone wishing to donate to Mercy’s campaign, they can visit here.
Leading potato supplier Albert Bartlett has hosted a special lunch for the Edinburgh-based FareShare volunteers who selflessly package, cook and serve food for the UK’s biggest charity tackling food waste for social good.
Albert Bartlett has donated the equivalent of over 12 million meals to FareShare.
The potato people were on site at Cyrenians Kitchen in Bonnington on Thursday (7th March) where Albert Bartlett Chef, Graham Wilson cooked a potato inspired menu* for the 30 local volunteers to thank them for their hard work and dedication.
Cyrenians, an Edinburgh-based homelessness charity, is responsible for delivering FareShare’s operation in central and southeast Scotland.
During its 14-year relationship with FareShare, Albert Bartlett has made a significant difference with generous food donations. In 2023 they donated 1,200 tonnes of food which provided three million equivalent meals*, helped 3,453 charities and prevented 3,000 tonnes of CO2e from being wasted.
Sales Director at Albert Bartlett, John Heginbottom:“Community is hugely important to Albert Bartlett, so giving back and saying thank you to the dedicated volunteers at FareShare is really important to us.
“It’s crucial that we continue to help FareShare towards its mission of tackling food waste and hunger – potatoes are rich in nutrients.’’
Stevie Murray, Volunteer at FareShare:“Yesterday we were treated to a special lunch on site from Albert Bartlett.
“The food was amazing, and the company was great. I have been volunteering at FareShare for the past five years, following my retirement I decided to spend my time helping others, which is fantastic and so rewarding.’’
The volunteer lunch follows the recent Albert Bartlett Golden Ticket giveaway which saw local charities in the FareShare network receive a voucher worth £100 in the 62 tonnes of surplus potatoes.
The charities included:
Laurence’s Larder and Open Kitchen, Northwest London
The Food Chain, North London
Kellands School, Aberdeenshire
Dundee Survival Group, Dundee
Faifley Community Council, Glasgow
Director of food at FareShare, Simon Millard:“We are enormously grateful to Albert Bartlett for their ongoing support for FareShare.
“Their surplus potatoes are redistributed across our nationwide network of 8,500 charities and community groups and make a valuable contribution to getting good food to people in need, rather than letting it go to waste.
“Regular supplies of potatoes enable these groups to create hearty, nourishing meals for the people they support, bringing people together and helping them access other vital support services.
“Volunteers are absolutely crucial to FareShare’s operation, making sure good food gets to people and groups that need it. The meal was a wonderful opportunity to say thank you for their hard work and dedication, and we are grateful to the team at Albert Bartlett for making it happen.”
*The menu consisted of Spicy Buffalo and Vegan Blue Cheese loaded Crispy Albert Bartlett Mini Hash Browns, Luxury Mash Potato loaded with Tennessee BBQ Pulled Pork, Dill Pickles, and Crispy Nacho’s along with many other delicious dishes.
*The equivalent meals calculation is based on WRAP’s guidance around reporting the amounts of surplus food redistributed.
Edinburgh residents, visitors, and industry back plans for a visitor levy, an engagement exercise has revealed.
Generating close to 4,000 responses in total, a four-week survey conducted by the Council over Christmas and New Year found broad support for the aims and objectives of its Visitor Levy for Edinburgh proposals.
The survey found that Capital residents and community groups are particularly keen to see some of an Edinburgh levy reinvested towards enhancing essential public services, such as keeping the city clean and moving.
Business groups, who have largely fed back via focussed engagement sessions, express greater support for dedicated destination marketing and industry support, while everyone tends to agree a levy should be simple to administer and support the protection and enhancement of Edinburgh’s heritage and world-famous cultural offering.
The full findings – which echo evidence gathered by Council officers over the last six years – will be presented to Councillors on the Policy and Sustainability Committee on Tuesday (12 March).
Members of the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee will also meet on the same day to debate amendments to the national Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill which, if set in legislation as the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act this Spring/Summer, will allow Scotland’s local authorities including Edinburgh to charge a levy on overnight accommodation.
With much of the Capital’s scheme already researched and developed, Edinburgh is well placed to formally consult on and finalise its plans and is likely to become the first city in the UK to formally adopt a city-wide visitor levy.
Cammy Day, City of Edinburgh Council Leader, said: “Edinburgh has been lobbying the Scottish Government for more than a decade for the local powers to introduce a visitor levy. Finally, we are edging closer to this long-called for legislation.
“Throughout the years, we have repeatedly and actively engaged with our tourism and hospitality industry, as well as with residents, seeking views at various stages on the type of visitor levy Edinburgh needs.
“At every turn, we’ve had overwhelming backing at a community level and have witnessed growing support from those in the tourism and hospitality industry. This is only building as we head towards the last Parliamentary hurdle.
“We’re very proud that Edinburgh is one of the world’s most popular visitor destinations, but we’re equally aware that this success comes at a cost. A small overnight charge is common practice in other major cities and destinations, so why not here?
“The introduction of a levy will provide a funding stream that would be reinvested in the city and our infrastructure, to the benefit of our visitors and, crucially, the people who live here in our great Capital city all year round.
“While I welcome how far the Bill has come, I also echo the concerns shared by COSLA last week that it needs to allow visitor levies to be more flexible and quicker for Councils to roll out.
“Now that Edinburgh is ready to lead the introduction, I hope to see these adopted in the amendments Members of Parliament debate next week.”
Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns, says she is “deeply concerned” about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, following a visit to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and a meeting with President el-Sisi.
During a visit to Egypt, the Foreign Affairs Committee investigated conditions in Al Arish, on Egypt’s border with Gaza. The city in North Sinai is the organising point for all aid entering Gaza via the heavily controlled Rafah crossing, the only point of transit between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
In Al Arish, MPs visited an Egyptian Red Crescent Society warehouse, where they spoke with local volunteers about the serious difficulties distributing aid to Gaza. They also met with patients evacuated from Gaza and medics at the Al Arish General Hospital, and with officials from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other humanitarian agencies such as UNICEF.
MPs also spent time in Cairo, where in addition to the President they met with senior Egyptian government representatives including Assistant Foreign Minister for Europe Khaled Emara and Assistant Minister for Arab Affairs Mohamed El Badri. They also met with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, and Egyptian civil society leaders and human rights activists.
The Committee also conducted meetings in Saudi Arabia, including with the Minister of Commerce Majid Al Qassabi; Head of Policy Planning in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Rayed Krimly; members of the Shura Council; President of the Human Rights Commission Hala Al Tawaijri and officials from the US Embassy in Saudi capital Riyadh.
Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns MP, said: “We’ve just returned from the aid staging location in Egypt, where thousands of trucks are sat waiting to deliver aid.
“Egypt is playing an important role in the current crisis as a mediator between Israel and Hamas towards a truce and enabling the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. We also held important discussions with counterparts regarding crises such as Sudan, Yemen and beyond.
“I am deeply concerned about the situation Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee saw at Egypt’s border with Gaza. We saw hundreds upon hundreds of trucks sitting in Al Arish, unable to deliver their goods to those so desperately in need of the lifesaving aid they carry due to insufficient opening hours of the crossing, inconsistent restrictions on what items can enter Gaza, and a lack of de-confliction to protect humanitarian operations.
“We also saw tonnes of goods that had been rejected. Last month there was almost a week where no trucks entered Gaza with aid and 17,000 children are now unaccompanied due to being separated from their families or being orphaned.
“Saudi Arabia is an important and influential power broker in the Middle East, with a key role to play in maintaining stability in the region.
“It was productive to discuss with interlocutors the crisis in Gaza, how to bring a long-term resolution to the conflict, and to discuss geopolitical priorities such as Yemen and beyond.”
PLAQUE UNVEILED AT ROYSTON WARDIEBURN COMMUNITY CENTRE
ROYSTON Wardieburn Community Centre’s management committee organised the unveiling of a plaque to mark North Edinburgh’s proud record of community activism on the eve of International Women’s Day.
RWCC Chair Billy Fitzpatrick, Willie Black and Cathie Ahmed were among the local people who spoke movingly and contributed poems on a special day.
The new plaque is situated alongside the cherry blossom tree planted to commemorate local activist Roberta Blaikie, and it was fitting that members of Roberta’s family attended to perform the unveiling just as the tree begins to bud once again.
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