Sunday Express Comment – ‘Safe Pensions’ and ‘Sure Health’

Britain’s corporations can keep their profits and look after their employees’ health and future.

David Cordingley – Leader
United Kingdom Popular Democrats (UKpopdems)

The key goal of any business is to make profits. Profits are good, losses are bad. Profits power the whole country like muscles power a person. If muscles and profits are toned and healthy then everyone benefits, company bosses, employees, customers, shareholders and Britain itself. If the corporate muscles are flabby and full of fat, then profits are down or non-existent and the whole country suffers as a result. We all benefit when properly run corporations plough their profits back in for future growth.

In a capital economy like Britain’s, which depends on employee wages and company profits to keep the state and public sector afloat, the government has a simple job to do. It has to create a business environment which maximises profits now and allows businesses to keep more of those profits for future investment. You’d think that was fairly straight-forward, wouldn’t you? But Brown, Britain’s worst ever Chancellor, just doesn’t get it. Some nutter has told him that destroying business competitiveness through red tape and high taxes has been one of his most successful policies to date and his smug smile shows he’s believed them.

Anyone in business knows the world has never been so competitive and yet Britain’s tax on profits (corporation tax) is still at a massive 30%. That’s money straight out of business into the big black hole of Gordon’s Counting House. Now, look at enlightened countries that are booming; Ireland, for example, where corporation tax is 12.5%. See a connection? Ireland is attracting profitable corporations like a money magnet while Britain slides down the competitiveness ranks faster than a fireman down a pole.

This is what we need to do. We need to find a way of reducing corporation tax to zero. Yes, zero: nothing. Zero corporation tax not only allows companies to keep all their declared profits but it saves them the tens of millions spent avoiding that tax in the first place. For the nation, it means hundreds of highly profitable businesses setting up their headquarters in Britain and creating tens of thousands of new jobs in the process. For the first time in modern history Britain’s corporations would have control over their own profits without the Pooh Bear Chancellor constantly plunging his hand into the honey pot to grab a share.

All right, you say, but how do we recover the £50 billion or so that corporation tax contributes to the treasury. Britain needs that money. Well, the answer’s not so difficult once the first radical step has been taken to dramatically cut business taxes. Naturally, though, in return for gaining control over their own profits, something equivalent must be recovered from the private sector. That something is for business to take over and run efficiently some services that the Government is currently running inefficiently. We’re not talking the horrible ‘outsourcing’ word here, nor yet about more expensive and wasteful PFI. No, the payback necessary is for business to better look after their workers by taking a direct interest in employee health and future security.

The guarantee of financial dignity and security in old age must surely be a basic right for everyone, but this government has blown it. Unless we solve the looming pension crisis soon, we will all either be dragged down by Britain’s pension debt, or most ordinary pensioners will be in the poor house. Only public sector employees now have a decent pension entitlement that really everyone should have. The way out is for the private sector to take responsibility once again for proper earnings related employee pensions. These ‘Safe Pensions’ would be one element of corporation tax recovery that employers and employees would jointly contribute to. ‘Safe Pensions’ would be strictly regulated, managed independently well away from any possible grasping hands and pay 50% of earnings. Companies may squeal, but ‘Safe Pensions’ are affordable and will protect Britain’s future viability more than any other measure.

Employee health is another area that business should welcome much more involvement in. Healthy workers make better workers. Some employers already give private health benefits to senior staff. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about companies taking responsibility for helping their employees get better and faster NHS care. ‘Sure Health’ would be an employer funded insurance scheme that directly pays for NHS services and medical procedures for employees. Britain’s NHS is such a wonderful concept so woefully and ineptly managed. It’s not the fault of the surgeons, physicians and nurses, who are all first rate. It’s the fault of overbearing government bureaucracy coupled with poor internal management. ‘Sure Health’ utilises the efficiency potential of private industry to indirectly campaign for more effective NHS health care in order to reduce their own insurance costs.

Giving up Corporation tax in return for better employee health and pensions through ‘Sure Health’ and ‘Safe Pensions’ is a winner. Companies can manage these extra costs far better than government and they keep all their profits, while employees will no longer have to worry about retirement and could get better NHS health care. Britain would benefit enormously through a great influx of new profitable corporations creating jobs, future proofing pensions and a huge reduction in bureaucratic costs. A fund to protect these schemes when loss-making companies genuinely cannot afford the costs would be essential, but only with an overriding condition that those same companies also cancel dividend payments to shareholders and strictly limit directors’ salaries.