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Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on UK inflation jumping to 3.8 percent · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talks. It'd be
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  Speaker 2: Devin Gray UK corresponds with us now, Hi, Kevin, hither
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  Speaker 2: hell right? So how much trouble do you reckon the
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  Speaker 2: government sin with these asylum hotels?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I do think it's going to lead now to
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  Speaker 3: a whole load of councils, following an initial council and
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  Speaker 3: its successful appeal in court, that other councils will now
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  Speaker 3: join in and try and get the hotels being used
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  Speaker 3: to house male asylum seekers emptied of those asylum seekers.
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  Speaker 3: So what's happened a big High Court ruling which allowed
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  Speaker 3: the council in Epping, that's Essex in southeast England to
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  Speaker 3: force out the asylum seekers in one particular hotel, the
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  Speaker 3: Bell Hotel has seen over the last few weeks thousands
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  Speaker 3: of people protests outside, both those in support of migrants.
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  Speaker 3: It has to be said that I think the vast
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  Speaker 3: majority saying we should not be having in a hotel
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  Speaker 3: which has a license to be a hotel single mail
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  Speaker 3: asylum seekers, that nobody's done any security checks on and
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  Speaker 3: all this came about incidentally, really because an asylum seeker
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  Speaker 3: living there was charged with sexually assaulting a fourteen year
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  Speaker 3: old girl, and another asylum seeker there Assyrian has been
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  Speaker 3: charged with assault and common assault with four alleged victims
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  Speaker 3: in that case, as well as you can imagine a
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  Speaker 3: great deal of bill feeling by local people over those cases.
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  Speaker 3: They went to court with the council to say they
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  Speaker 3: shouldn't be there, and amazingly they won. Now the thing
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  Speaker 3: is for the government. They're using two hundred and ten
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  Speaker 3: hotels across the country housing thirty two thousand asylum seekers.
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  Speaker 3: So if the courts begin to be full of councils
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  Speaker 3: winning this battle, it's going to be very difficult for
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  Speaker 3: the government to find somewhere for those people to live.
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  Speaker 3: That said, this was thought to be an exceptional case
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  Speaker 3: because of those two ongoing court cases relating to this
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  Speaker 3: asylum seat hotel.
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  Speaker 2: You guys worried about inflation.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I think it is something that is climbing. So
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  Speaker 3: the latest figure is up to three point eight percent,
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  Speaker 3: driven mainly by a jump in the price of airfares.
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  Speaker 3: But that means that inflation is now at the highest
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  Speaker 3: level for eighteen months. And let's not forget the target
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  Speaker 3: of the Bank of England is two percent. The UK
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  Speaker 3: therefore continues to have the highest rate of inflation in
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  Speaker 3: the G seven actually by quite some way. America comes second.
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  Speaker 3: So what caused this? Well, I mentioned in the airfares,
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  Speaker 3: but let's not forget the basic costs. Food, non alcoholic
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  Speaker 3: beverages have all pushed up prices and there's been quite
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  Speaker 3: a steep rise in the cost of eating out. Part
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  Speaker 3: of that is said because of the government's own taxes
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  Speaker 3: about how the employer has to pay a tax on
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  Speaker 3: each employe. Now, the Bank of England does forecast inflation
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  Speaker 3: will peak higher at four percent but then begin to drop.
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  Speaker 3: But don't forget they just recently reduced interest rates, which
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  Speaker 3: will be an inner an inflation generator.
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  Speaker 2: Now do you think it was a smart move to
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  Speaker 2: cut the Space Agency?
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  Speaker 3: A very unusual move and it's kind of I think
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  Speaker 3: the governments tried to put this out frankly when there's
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  Speaker 3: lots of other news about and it might not quite
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  Speaker 3: make the headlines.
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  Speaker 1: But it has.
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  Speaker 3: The UK Space Agency is going to cease to exist
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  Speaker 3: as an independent ender tee. It'll be coming under the
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  Speaker 3: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. The Space sector here
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  Speaker 3: does generate roughly forty two billion New Zealand dollars a year.
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  Speaker 3: It employs fifty five thousand people. Of course, we've only
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  Speaker 3: ever sent one person into space tim Peak, but from
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  Speaker 3: the UK. But nevertheless, there is a big program in
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  Speaker 3: the space sector here and many scientists think this is
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  Speaker 3: a backward move. Believe that although the government's saying it
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  Speaker 3: will save money, cut duplication in shore ministerial oversight, others
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  Speaker 3: saying we will lose focus on this sector in which
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  Speaker 3: Britain is doing well and growing and could lead at
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  Speaker 3: least for a couple of years of stagnation.
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  Speaker 2: Givin thank you, appreciate it. Gavin Gray, UK, corresponding.
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