{"text":[[{"start":9.12,"text":"Andy Burnham will on Tuesday set out plans to tackle two of Britain’s most intractable issues — a social care crisis and youth unemployment — as he declares to the Labour conference: “Hope comes from honesty.”"}],[{"start":21,"text":"John Healey, chancellor, did not deny on Monday that Burnham would herald an end to the pensions “triple lock” to help fund a new social care service, drawing a line under a 15-year-old policy particularly beloved of older voters."}],[{"start":34.8,"text":"Asked whether the triple lock, which guarantees a significant annual increase in the state pension, would be in the party’s next manifesto, Healey told ITN: “The prime minister has got more to say on social care tomorrow.”"}],[{"start":47.28,"text":"Burnham is also expected to announce welfare reforms to tackle youth unemployment, after Healey told the conference on Monday that acting to take people out of a benefits trap was “a moral duty”."}],[{"start":57.8,"text":"The announcements are intended to reflect his determination to break with “politics as usual” in the UK."}],[{"start":63.62,"text":"Number 10 said Burnham’s speech — the first to his party conference since becoming Labour leader in July — would also set out details of his plan to exert more “public control” over privatised utilities, including water."}],[{"start":76.04,"text":"Burnham will say he had planned to deliver a “tub-thumping speech” but decided instead to use his address in Liverpool to show that he is ready to take on the tough problems facing the country."}],[{"start":86.36,"text":"He will outline what he claims is “a more serious prospectus for Britain than people have been offered in a generation” and say: “I accept people will not agree with every part of it, but I believe it can turn Britain around.”"}],[{"start":98.16,"text":"Tackling Britain’s social care crisis, which leaves some families facing catastrophic care costs, is a personal mission for Burnham, whose father Roy died this month after suffering from dementia."}],[{"start":108.88,"text":"Some in Number 10 and the Treasury see the triple lock as an “easier target” than tax rises, according to one person familiar with their thinking."}],[{"start":115.84,"text":"Replacing the triple lock with a link to earnings would save £600mn in 2029-30, rising to anywhere between £5bn and £40bn by 2050, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated — an uncertainty that complicates any effort to use the savings to fund social care."}],[{"start":136.7,"text":"Burnham’s vision of free social care would cost between £7bn and £18bn a year, depending on the model chosen, while Sir Andrew Dilnot, an expert on the issue, said the most comprehensive version would be “well in excess of £18bn”."}],[{"start":152.56,"text":"Healey’s speech on Monday carried heavy warnings about the predicament he faces at his Budget next month and the need for fiscal discipline and welfare reform."}],[{"start":162.4,"text":"Burnham is expected to set out more details of welfare reforms in his speech and the prime minister’s colleagues also expect him to set out more details on his previous pledge to put Thames Water into “public control”."}],[{"start":175.56,"text":"Ministers have been wrestling for months with the logistical challenge of how to push the heavily indebted utility into a “special administration regime” under which it would be controlled by taxpayers."}],[{"start":186.04,"text":"Burnham has given the green light for GB Energy, the new state-owned energy company, to invest in the electricity grid for the first time."}],[{"start":194.08,"text":"The prime minister will say in his speech that he will create “GB Grid” as a subsidiary of GB Energy and that it will be able to invest in transmission projects, competing with private sector companies such as National Grid."}],[{"start":206.68,"text":"Burnham will frame this tweak to GB Energy as part of his wider theme of “greater public control of energy”, Labour said."}],[{"start":214.52,"text":"Rising borrowing costs and spiking fuel prices, linked to the Iran war, have increased pressure on Burnham and Healey: the chancellor said on Monday the possibility of a US ban on diesel exports was “a concern”."}],[{"start":227.96,"text":"Another dark cloud is the EU’s “Made in Europe” policy, which ministers fear could hit British manufacturers by excluding them from the bloc’s subsidies and procurement policies."}],[{"start":238.24,"text":"Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary, said at the Labour conference that he will keep the idea of higher UK tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles “under review” despite having recently dismissed EU calls for such a move."}],[{"start":251.76,"text":"Separately, Burnham gave a strong hint that he did not want to hit business with any big new tax rises in next month’s Budget, saying that he was concerned about the “cost of business” alongside the cost of living."}],[{"start":263.76,"text":"He told LBC: “We want to get business in a position where you feel hopeful about the future and confident to invest and recruit.” Burnham said he did not want bosses to say to him: “We would like to, but you have just done this.”"}],[{"start":276.84,"text":"Burnham has already given housebuilders a lift with a promise to resurrect — in different form — the former Conservative “Help to Buy” scheme."}],[{"start":289,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790661111_3581.mp3"}