>> morning 930 on thursday the 14th of november. live across the uk. this is britain's newsroom with andrew pierce and bev turner. >> good morning. so council tax is going to soar. back in september, the deputy prime minister, angela rayner , had no minister, angela rayner, had no plans to raise your council tax. but guess what.7 the bills are set to rise by more than £100 next year and find out why action by frustrated pharmacists could impact. >> when you pick up your prescriptions . prescriptions. >> a labour mp wants gazan families caught in the middle east conflict to be able to seek temporary sanctuary in the uk, like we did with ukrainians. would you welcome a gazan refugee into your home? >> nigel farage, boris johnson and elon musk have now all attacked essex police for an

attacked essex police for an attack on free speech after they turned up to the house of the journalist, alison pearson, over a tweet she made more than a year ago. >> it seemed to me a completely mad overreaction. whatever it was that i posted a year ago on x , i'm not in the habit of x, i'm not in the habit of writing anything horrible and inflammatory. if i wrote something that was unwise , i something that was unwise, i still don't think that's a proportionate response . proportionate response. >> and we'll bring you welsh . >> and we'll bring you welsh. labour's plan to make the great outdoors less racist. their solution ? banning dogs? yep, you solution? banning dogs? yep, you did hear that right? >> and sir rod stewart is not sailing. he's sailing. in fact, he's selling five of his sports cars because he's sick to death of the potholes near his home in essex. >> and king charles is celebrating his 76th birthday today. he's opening two new food hubs. and last night he was in attendance at the gladiator two premiere. that sounds like a rather relaxing birthday .

rather relaxing birthday. get in touch this morning. let us know your thoughts . your thoughts. gbnews.com/yoursay. first, at the very latest news with katie bowman . bowman. >> bev and andrew. thank you and a very good morning to you. these are your latest headlines from the gb newsroom. the chancellor is expected to use her first mansion house speech today to outline reforms to pensions, telling city bosses she has a plan to boost the economy. rachel reeves will reportedly propose an overhaul of britain's pension fund industry by introducing pension mega funds that could help unlock £80 billion worth of investment in businesses and infrastructure. under the plans, the reforms will be introduced through a new pension schemes bill next year. mega funds will mirror schemes in australia and canada, where pension funds, pension funds invest in assets that have a higher growth potential. the government said

pensions minister emma reynolds outlined the plans a short time ago. >> pensions minister, let me be absolutely clear that it is these two objectives that i'm holding in my mind all the time, which is boosting investment in our own economy, but at the same time, boosting pension savers retirement incomes. this is a win win situation . win win situation. >> council tax bills in england are expected to increase by up to 5% next april, amid warnings from the conservatives that local authorities face a £2.4 billion black hole. conservative party leader kemi badenoch pressed sir keir starmer to confirm whether the cap on council tax would be increased or not. speaking after prime minister's questions yesterday, the prime minister's press secretary told reporters that the threshold remains the same. families are therefore facing a £100 increase next year. shadow secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities kevin hollinrake had this to say earlier. >> kemi badenoch yesterday had to tease that out of him.

really, what was had he really thought about this? so having said there would be no tax increases, everything was fully costed and fully funded. now we realise there's £25 billion of taxes, which really is going to hit working people and even people who are not working and just buying stuff because things are going to be dearer in the shops. >> and finally, for now, king charles turns 76 today as gun salutes are set to take place in green park to mark the occasion. today is the monarch's actual birthday, following the official celebration marked by trooping of the colour in june. and this morning the royal family posted an image of the king on x. the king is carrying out official dufies king is carrying out official duties today as he is set to visit a surplus food festival and open two coronation food hubs designed to bridge the gap between food need and food waste in the uk. it comes as charles attended the global premiere of gladiator two last night, with stars pedro pascal and paul mescal . those are the latest gb mescal. those are the latest gb news headlines. now it's back to andrew and bev for the very latest gb news direct to your

smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gb news dot com. >> forward slash alerts . >> forward slash alerts. >> forward slash alerts. >> welcome back to britain's newsroom live across the uk on gb news with bev turner and andrew pierce. you've been smoking. if you're listening on the radio, it's not barry white. >> is this barry white or is it marlene dietrich? >> i've got a lot going on, andrew, but i'm fine. i've got my. i've got my ginger tea. i've got some. honey, i'm not ill, i'm not ill. i'm fine. i've just got no voice. >> ginger is ginger and lemon. very good for the throat. >> thank you, grandma. >> thank you, grandma. >> and less. >> and less. >> i do not smoke right now in september. >> our deputy prime minister, who's also deals with the local . who's also deals with the local. the devolved mayors, said there was no plans to increase council tax. >> that's right. well, in another u—turn , your bills are another u—turn, your bills are going to go up by more than £100 a year from april. >> let's talk to former labour special adviser and columnist

paul richards, who is a friend of this programme. paul, it's only in september. angela rayner said that and now we have confirmation from number 10 yesterday that local authorities can raise their council tax up to 5%. and in my experience, paulif to 5%. and in my experience, paul, if they can, they will. and of course, inflation is only 1.7%. so that's more than double the rate of inflation. >> sure andrew. but if you look at the things that local authorities actually deliver to local communities, whether it's local communities, whether it's local parks or schools or in some cases fixing the roads and the bins and all these things, people know that these local services are a very important. but b crumbling and stretched and i think most people would rather pay a little bit more on their council tax than live in a decent community where things work and nothing's broken, then have this sort of artificial dampener on the council tax that the previous government installed. so, you know, nobody installed. so, you know, nobody in the world likes paying more tax, but this is proportionate and it delivers the very local

services . it doesn't go into services. it doesn't go into some black hole. these are the things on our streets in our communities that we rely on. >> but why then, would the deputy prime minister say only a few weeks ago there were no plans? is she not on top of her brief? >> well, she's utterly on top of her brief, but i would say that, you know, the circumstances are changing fast, and i think the, you know, the mess that was left behind is still only just being revealed in terms of the black hole in the public finances. and these , these council tax these, these council tax increases, which are, you know, usually just year on year, were kept down. i think now we're catching up with that. and like i say, i think if people think that their bins are going to get emptied, it's just going to be a bit better on your streets then i think most people won't mind paying i think most people won't mind paying a little bit more for that. >> i think part of the problem, paulis >> i think part of the problem, paul, is that we don't trust the people in power anymore at the moment, and we feel like we might pay our extra money per yean might pay our extra money per year, but we just don't trust that it's being spent in the right way, on the right things .

right way, on the right things. and over in america, donald trump is talking about with his his efficiency drive, absolute transparency on where every pennyis transparency on where every penny is being spent so that people can see it posted online. do you think that would be a goodidea do you think that would be a good idea here? >> well, i do actually. i think that there is government waste and bureaucratic waste and i wouldn't i don't think i would put elon musk in charge of it, but i think it was the democrats in america who invented this idea of the $400 hammer when it was discovered that procurement rules meant that people were buying a hammer. you know, the state was buying hammers they could have got at walmart for $5, for $400. and there is waste $5, for $400. and there is