Follow the carrot calculator over coming months

The price of carrots may rise due to NI payments, says Christine Grahame

Well, I am well, but there is a serious point to be pursued. Many have focussed on the impact of the increased levy on the public sector, NHS Lothian and local councils and indeed charities, which is bad enough, but it goes well beyond that.

I return to the carrots, in my view a staple edible in the Scottish diet. Where would Scotch broth be without them? Broadly speaking the current carrot cost is 69p a bag. Working from the start of the carrot journey, the importer of carrot seeds, fertilisers and so on, may have additional, NI costs for employees.

Then these have to be tended and harvested. More employee NI costs. The haulier who picks the harvest up and delivers to packaging and the packaging company, leads to more NI costs. From there to the wholesaler and then onto the supermarket shelves and so on there will be more NI costs. At the end of a long chain (and I will have missed out some links) comes you and me, the customer.

We will have no-one to pass those costs onto and will simply have to pay up. And what goes for carrots goes for practically everything else. That is just in the consumer market. What of housebuilding and additional construction costs rising as a result of this extra NI for employees?

New build house prices rise and then mortgages will follow. Of course what could happen, and I know this is already the case, that some employers are not taking on extra staff and even looking to cut current staff hours if not numbers. The additional costs for charities runs into hundreds of thousands, and they have no end customer who can bear the extra cost so undoubtedly the good work they all do will be reduced.

The phrase often used of legislation or policy is to beware the “unintended consequences” except I cannot believe Rachael Reeves and the Labour Government did not see this coming. Of course they did. What was it they said pre-election? Oh yes, they denied there was a “black hole” even though the independent Institute of Fiscal Studies made it plain it was at least £18 billion whoever won. Then Labour claimed, goodness me, it was, out of the blue, £22bn. That would be the original £18bn plus the cost of previously agreed public sector pay settlements.

Then there was that pledge that no “working people” would see their income tax or NI rise. Working people are obviously not employers, the vast majority of whom have small sized businesses. There was not so much as a cheep about means testing the Winter Fuel Payment. Higher costs equal inflation. Pay packets may remain the same so that box is ticked but it won’t go as far. Did we think that’s what “change” meant? Back to carrots, today at 69p. Tomorrow? Follow the carrot calculator over the coming months.

Christine Grahame is SNP MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale