The devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have called on the UK government to rethink plans to end the universal credit uplift.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak plans to stop the extra £20-a-week payment in October – saying it is only temporary measure to help people through the pandemic.

But there are growing calls for it to be extended or made permanent.

Ministers from Holyrood, Cardiff and Stormont have raised concerns about the impact the cut will have on poverty.

They wrote a joint letter to Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey, describing the change as the “biggest overnight reduction to a basic rate of social security since the modern welfare state began, more than 70 years ago”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last week he wanted the focus to be on better paid jobs, rather than welfare. He was speaking after two Tory MPs joined calls for the uplift to be made permanent.

A new organisation is being set up with the aim of halting future pandemics. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will launch on 1 April, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced.

He told a briefing hosted by the Local Government Association that the “UKHSA must plan, it must prevent and it must respond. UKHSA must be ready.”

Hancock added: “UKHSA, as it will be known, will be this country’s permanent standing capacity to plan, prevent and respond to external threats to health … UKHSA will work with partners around the world and lead the UK’s global contribution to health security research.

“Next, UKHSA will be tasked to prevent external threats to health, deploying the full might of our analytic and genomic capability on infectious diseases … in all, helping to cast a protective shield over the nation’s health. Even after years without a major public health threat, UKHSA must be ready not just to do the science but to respond at unbelievable pace.”

He said the agency would hire the “very best team possible from around the world” and would be led by Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, who will be its chief executive.

Hancock said the agency must be “vigilant, dynamic and confident”. He added: “This isn’t just an agency. Its job is to provide professional leadership here and around the world.”

UKHSA replaces the National Institute for Health Protection, which was established in August with Dido Harding as its interim chair. She will step down to make way for the new agency.

At the same briefing, Lady Harding, who is head of NHS test and trace, said more Britons downloaded the Zoom app than the test and trace app last year.

She said: “[NHS test and trace] was the second most downloaded app in the country last year, only after Zoom, and slightly ahead of TikTok … 21 million people downloaded the app.”

In a statement, Hancock said: “The UKHSA will be this country’s permanent standing capacity to plan, prevent and respond to external threats to health. It will bring together our capabilities from the scientific excellence embodied by the likes of Dr Susan Hopkins and her amazing colleagues in clinical public health, to the extraordinary capability of NHS test and trace, which Dido Harding has built so effectively over the last nine months, and the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC).

An ambitious and revolutionary approach to levelling up rural Britain can create jobs, boost green economic growth, increase exports and improve the wellbeing of the entire nation, a new report from the NFU highlights.

Launched at the NFU’s annual conference today, the report “Levelling up rural Britain” highlights how British farming and rural Britain can provide the solution to many of the challenges the nation faces by driving sustainable food production and pioneering food policy that produces carbon neutral food.

It also showcases how rural Britain is uniquely placed to help the recovery of the nation from COVID-19; delivering physical and mental health through the farmed landscape, which has been a lifeline for so many during lockdown, and supporting the return to whole-food cooking with nutritious, sustainable and affordable British food.

The report says that no one should be disadvantaged by where they live or where their business is based. It highlights several areas where the rural and urban divide continues to grow including:

Broadband and connectivity – poor access to reliable mobile coverage and adequate broadband continues to put rural areas at a disadvantage1, acting as a constraint to capital investment.

Rural crime – farms and rural communities have increasingly become the target of criminals in recent years, with rural crime costing the UK £54.3 million in 20192. Rural areas continue to receive lower levels of police funding, per head of population, than urban areas3.

Planning – The planning system too often prevents farm modernisation, diversification and home building for farm workers. The government’s planning White Paper offers an opportunity to reform and ensure renewal and growth can be sustained in rural areas.

Investment – UK Government should be encouraging more investment, including British investment, into the success story that is British food.

Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure from Conservative “red wall” MPs to go beyond existing support for the UK economy in Wednesday’s budget and cut taxes for thousands of retailers.

MPs across the political spectrum are increasingly uneasy that he may introduce income tax rises for middle earners, and the chancellor is facing calls from 45 northern Tories to make “a bold move to reduce business rates”.

The calls come as Sunak prepares for a major test on Wednesday as he seeks to find an extra £43bn to plug a hole in the UK’s post-pandemic finances while allowing the economy to recover from a third lengthy coronavirus lockdown.

Over 1,000 doctors plan to quit the NHS because they are disillusioned with the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and frustrated about their pay, a new survey has found.

The doctors either intend to move abroad, take a career break, switch to private hospitals or resign to work as locums instead, amid growing concern about mental health and stress levels in the profession.

“NHS doctors have come out of this pandemic battered, bruised and burned out”, said Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, president of the Doctors’ Association UK, which undertook the research. The large number of medics who say they will leave the NHS within three years is “a shocking indictment of the government’s failure to value our nation’s doctors,” she added. “These are dedicated professionals who have put their lives on the line time and time again to keep patients in the NHS safe, and we could be about to lose them.”

In all, 1,758 doctors across the UK responded when DAUK undertook an online survey among its members. It asked: “Has the pandemic and the government’s treatment of frontline doctors during the pandemic impacted your decision to stay or leave the NHS?”. Almost seven in ten – 1,214 (69%) – said that it had made them more likely to leave the health service, while 26% said that it had not.

When asked “where do you see yourself working in the next one to three years?”, almost two-thirds of doctors – 1,143 (65%) – said they would be leaving the NHS. That finding has prompted renewed concern about NHS understaffing, as the service in England already has vacancies for 8,278 doctors, according to the most recent official figures.