Closing summary
The Department for Work and Pensions is to revive the Pensions Commission, which last met in 2006, to tackle the issue of working age adults failing to put enough money into their retirement savings. It has also commissioned the next review of the state pension age, currently 66. The work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, said a long-term commitment to the triple lock on pensions is not in the scope of the resurrected Pensions Commission.
In a speech in London this morning, Nigel Farage said Reform UK will aim to halve crime in five years if the party gets into government, as he estimated a £17.4bn bill to achieve it. Proposals to recruit more police officers and create new prison places contribute to the estimated £3.48bn annual bill for the party’s plans on crime and justice.
Farage also said he wants to see more than 10,000 more prison places freed up by deporting foreign criminals to their country of origin through bilateral agreements, though this will likely face many legal obstacles. He has been accused by opposition parties of being thin on detail and only out to make headlines.
The system for regulating water companies should be overhauled and replaced with one body for England and one body for Wales, a landmark review of the sector has advised.
For England, proposals include abolishing the regulator Ofwat, which oversees how much water companies in England and Wales can charge for services, and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), which ensures that public water supplies are safe. The report also advises removing the regulatory roles of the Environment Agency and Natural England, which monitor the sector’s impact on nature, such as companies illegally dumping sewage into waterways.
Keir Starmer appeared in front of MPs at the Liaison Committee this afternoon. The prime minister defended freezing local housing allowance, was pressed on where the government would place homeless families and on the impact of the controversial welfare cuts that sparked a revolt among his backbenchers.
Thanks for joining us. We are closing this blog now. You can find all our latest coverage of UK politics here.
The liaison committee has now finished.
