21. Weekly Newsletter
UK Government set to pay out billions
A 7-year public inquiry into the 30,000 people treated with contaminated blood is set to be concluded this week. During the 1970s and 1980s, over 30,000 people who were being treated for blood clots and haemophilia were treated with blood infected with HIV and Hepatitis B+C. Almost 3000 of them were believed to be killed as a result of these transfusions, and a compensation package is expected to be paid over the next few years.
Jeremy Hunt stated, “Rishi Sunak and I both believe the delays have gone on too long and now is the time for justice”. Hunt is expected to reveal a compensation package deal worth billions this week, paid through government borrowing. The deal is expected to be upward of £10 billion, which will have huge implications on budgets that were already extremely tight for whichever party takes control over the coming years.
Newspapers
Over the last seven days, the UK’s front page news cycle has covered varied topics. Some of the newspaper headlines from this week were:
- Financial Times- ‘New visa rules force HSBC and Deloitte to withdraw UK job offers’
- Financial Times- ‘Axing northern leg of HS2 will stunt UK growth, says official adviser’
- Financial Times- ‘Britain’s got AI talent but that’s not enough’
- Financial Times- ‘UK supermarkets in talks about joining forces for Fairtrade products’
- Financial Times- ‘Global investors wake up to cheap UK stocks as takeover activity rises’
England’s universities under threat
The Office for Student’s annual report is set to release a stark warning about the financial health of universities this week after a fall in applications, with a few universities required to make drastic cuts to prevent closing. It is found that 40% of England’s universities expect to be in deficit in the coming academic year with cash flows at a dangerously low level. This has sparked further criticism over Rishi Sunak’s plans to restrict international students from studying in the UK with the salary threshold required jumping from £26,200 to £38,700.
Bosses at groups like Anglo American and Rio Tinto expressed their deep concerns about these policies in a letter to Rishi Sunak, stating that such policies will “undermine” the positive impact of international students and will negatively affect the future workforce. The head of Russel Group universities also warned that restrictions on overseas recruitment would lead to a “significant destabilisation of the sector”.
