Schools will pay lower national insurance contributions on behalf of their staff after the chancellor announced a cut to rates, but leaders have slammed his “mini budget” for including no extra cash injection for education.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng also pledged new legislation to force unions to put pay offers to a vote of members, which he said would “ensure strikes can only be called once negotiations have genuinely broken down”. No further details have been announced.
Kwarteng confirmed today the government is reversing the 1.25 percentage point increase in national insurance that came into effect in April. The increase, dubbed the “health and social care levy”, was meant to raise more funding for the NHS.
