Afternoon Briefing Thursday 28th August

0:00This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwCWC. Staying competitive means getting ahead, not just keeping up. So how do business leaders cut through the noise and focus on what really matters? PwC takes you further with tech, from optimising the systems that put your data to work, to scaling AI from proof of concept to competitive edge. PwC helps you meet tomorrow's tech demands so you can compete at a speed that rewrites the rules. Discover more at pwc.co.uk. Welcome to the Times Afternoon Briefing on Thursday 28th August. The Treasury is considering a tax increase for landlords.

0:40The Times understands officials are examining proposals to apply national insurance to rental income in the hope of raising£2 billion. The property expert Kirsty Allsop was told Times Radio it's a terrible idea that will damage the property market. We've got Rachel Reeves stroke Mary Poppins who goes out and flies all these kites. And the problem is this is not fun kite flying. This is economically destabilising. It's literally like having the economy run by Baldrick. She keeps on coming up with the cunning plans and she needs to go and sit in a corner and think about how to save money and improve the economy, not constantly be taking money from people because this will impact tenants.

1:17As the autumn budget approaches, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, needs to fill a black hole of up to£40 billion. Times Radio's business correspondent Dominic O 'Connell says the purpose of national insurance has changed radically since it was brought in back in 1911. The idea was that if you worked, you earned contributions, you were making contributions towards certain state benefits, notably the state pension, and you had to qualify for them. And originally, you actually got stamps you put on a piece of paper. So work to qualify for later benefits. But that link has been eroded over time. Now it's really just a second income tax.

1:53You don't really qualify for much at all by making national insurance contributions. Sir Tony Blair has been advising Donald Trump on what's described as a comprehensive plan to rebuild Gaza. The former prime minister has reportedly been working with the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for months on proposals to turn the territory into a trade hub and resort. Political correspondent with the Times of Israel, Tal Schneider, says any reconstruction must not benefit Hamas. Any type of new beginning has to make sure that the equipment that goes in doesn't serve the Hamas to build more rockets and more tunnels.

2:32Their underground tunnel system is better than the tube in London and any other kind of construction. And we have to make sure this construction area doesn't turn into a launch pad for rockets. And Lib Dem leader Sred Davies to boycott Donald Trump's state banquet next month in a protest against his position on Gaza. He says he and his wife have spent all summer thinking about this and have prayed about it. He says they decided it was the one way to send a message to Trump. Callum Miller, the Lib Dems foreign affairs spokesman, has told Times Radio the US president could stop the bloodshed. If he were to pick up the phone to Benjamin Netanyahu and to the Qatari government to back Hamas's terrorists, he could really bring this to an end very, very rapidly.

3:16So by taking the difficult decision not to attend the state banquet, Ed is highlighting that fact and asking that that conversation be at the heart of Keir Starmer's dialogue with Donald Trump during his visit. And you can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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