Category Archives: Cost of living crisis

UK politics: Public must be told if Carrie Johnson fined for breaking lockdown rules, says Starmer – live

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Latest updates: the Labour leader suggests it is in the public’s interest if the prime minister’s wife is fined over Partygate

Clive Efford (Lab) is asking the questions now.

Q: You have expressed strong views in the past. Is that a problem?

I described the licence fee as regressive. I didn’t think that was an opinion, I thought that was a statement of fact, actually.

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Rishi Sunak tackled over failure to help poorest families

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Experts say absolute poverty could hit a fifth of UK population following chancellor’s mini-budget

Rishi Sunak has sought to defend his mini-budget against accusations he failed to shield Britain’s poorest families from the worst hit to living standards in six decades, as economists warned 1.3 million people will fall into absolute poverty next year.

Amid heavy criticism of Wednesday’s spring statement from opposition leaders and his own back benches, experts from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and Resolution Foundation thinktanks said the chancellor could have done more to help those most at need.

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Upshot of Rishi Sunak’s spring statement? A bleak decade ahead

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Analysis: Britain has ceased to be a country where workers can expect to get better off year after year

Much has been written about the year of economic misery ahead. Rishi Sunak’s attempts to mitigate the impact of the squeeze on living standards have been pored over and – generally – found wanting. The postmortem examinations carried out on the chancellor’s spring statement were unflattering.

There was plenty for the thinktanks that specialise in analysing tax, spending and living standards – the Resolution Foundation and the Institute for Fiscal Studies – to mull over.

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Rishi Sunak’s spring statement reopens questions about his political savvy

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Analysis: Clunky media appearances highlight an awkwardness with ordinary voters that was invisible during the pandemic

One of Gordon Brown’s few and oft-repeated jokes was that there are two kinds of chancellor: those who fail, and those who get out in time.

Despite having served little more than two years in the job, Rishi Sunak may have missed the moment to quit – or move next door – while he was ahead, according to Thursday’s front pages at least.

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‘Sticking-plaster measures’: Sunak fails to ease pain of surging costs, say firms

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Hospitality, manufacturing and haulage sectors say spring statement falls far short of the help needed

The spring statement did not deliver much to help Lesters, a small but growing packaging company struggling with rising costs.

The Staffordshire-based firm’s energy bills will rise from £7,000 a month to £18,000 when the current contract runs out. Speaking after Rishi Sunak’s spring statement, Lesters’ managing director, Billy Hutchinson, said the chancellor had offered nothing to help on this key issue.

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Rishi Sunak to promise ‘security for working families’ in spring statement

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Chancellor expected to announce fuel duty cut in package of measures to tackle cost of living crisis

Rishi Sunak will promise “security” to cash-strapped families as he announces a fresh package of measures to tackle the cost of living crisis on Wednesday, but will continue to underline the importance of fixing the public finances.

The chancellor has been under intense pressure to take action to help households with the rocketing cost of fuel and other essentials. The financial expert Martin Lewis told MPs on Tuesday that many households are facing a “fiscal punch in the face” when the energy price cap rises next month.

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Rishi Sunak handed borrowing boost before spring statement

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Figures improve chances of fuel duty or other tax cuts but inflation drives up cost of government debt

Rishi Sunak has been handed a boost from figures showing lower government borrowing than official estimates on the eve of the spring statement.

The figures come despite a sharp rise in debt interest payments last month amid soaring inflation.

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Treasury considers ways to ease cost of living in spring statement

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Reluctant to make big fiscal changes, chancellor Rishi Sunak considers tax adjustments and fuel duty cut

The Treasury has drawn up a range of options to help with the cost of living crisis – including a 1p cut to income tax, raising the national insurance threshold and a significant cut to fuel duty.

But government sources said Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, was still reluctant to make big fiscal changes.

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Raise benefits and pensions to help lower earners, thinktank tells Rishi Sunak

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Resolution Foundation says pegging benefits to inflation will target help to needy better than scrapping NI rise

Rishi Sunak should consider raising benefits and pensions to keep pace with inflation, research has suggested, as the chancellor faced increasing pressure to tackle the cost-of-living squeeze in this week’s spring budgetary statement.

Increasing benefits by an extra five percentage points, by 8.1% rather than the 3.1% currently planned, would give four times as much help for low-to-middle income households for every pound spent as scrapping the planned national insurance rise, the Resolution Foundation said.

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PM to chair roundtable on boosting UK’s nuclear power output

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Meeting comes as Boris Johnson prepares to publish his energy security strategy amid soaring prices and Ukraine war

Boris Johnson will chair a meeting on how to increase the UK’s nuclear power output on Monday, as he prepares to publish his energy security strategy this month amid soaring prices.

The prime minister will discuss domestic nuclear projects with leaders from the nuclear industry at a roundtable meeting at Downing Street, No 10 said.

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Priority is to cut taxes, says Rishi Sunak before spring statement

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Chancellor believed to be considering cut in fuel duty among measures to tackle cost of living crisis

Rishi Sunak has promised that tax increases are “done”, as he dropped a heavy hint that he is preparing measures to tackle the rising cost of living in next week’s spring statement.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said this week that Sunak had announced more tax rises in two years – worth 2% of GDP – than Gordon Brown did in a decade.

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Gordon Brown urges Sunak to address cost of living crisis in spring statement

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Ex-PM warns millions of people will fall into fuel poverty as bills price cap is lifted in April

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has warned the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, that millions more people will be plunged into fuel poverty unless the government uses next week’s spring statement to ease the UK’s cost of living crisis.

A letter to the chancellor, organised by Brown and signed by more than 70 Labour local government leaders, urged the chancellor to adopt a five-pronged approach to help those struggling to make ends meet.

Halt the 1.25 percentage-point increase in employee national insurance contributions.

Restore the £20 a week taken away from 6m households last October.

Provide significantly greater help for energy costs, targeted at the poorest households.

Put in place support for insulation costs for the poorest households as part of a programme for housing retrofits.

Update benefits this year in line with inflation rates.

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UK wages fall at fastest rate since 2014 as cost-of-living squeeze bites

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Unemployment rate falls below pre-Covid level but rising prices and energy bills hitswages

Unemployment in the UK has fallen below pre-Covid levels, but high inflation amid Britain’s cost of living crisis means average wages fell at the fastest rate since 2014.

The Office for National Statistics said the unemployment rate fell to 3.9% in the three months to January, dropping below the 4% rate in February 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the UK.

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Tenants face having to find extra £1,000 for 2022 rent and bills

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Hamptons expects sums to become 54% of post-tax income for average rented household in Great Britain

Tenants already struggling with the cost of living crisis typically face having to find an extra £1,000 this year to cover higher rent and essential bills, research shows.

The estate agent Hamptons said tenants’ finances faced a record squeeze as higher rents and energy bill increases combined to pile more pressure on households in Great Britain.

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Energy crisis: UK could learn from Fukushima response, MPs told

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Japanese measures including turning down the heating and slower trains could ease pressure on British households, say experts

Britain could learn from Japan’s response to the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster by reducing energy consumption to deal with soaring global gas prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, academics have said.

Suggesting a coordinated response to record gas prices could help ease the pressure on households, experts told MPs on the Commons business committee that steps to reduce national demand for gas-fired power next winter could be deployed.

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Europe must be more independent and shore up its defence, says Macron

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In TV address French president warns tough economic times are ahead following Ukraine invasion

Emmanuel Macron has warned that Europe must become more independent for its own defence and to ensure energy supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The French president said the conflict had “changed the era” across the continent and that he would be calling a summit of European leaders next week to discuss how to address the “unprecedented challenge” it created.

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Florence asks residents to pay utility bills of struggling pensioners

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Social impact of Italy’s 50% energy price rise is evident in city where 27.6% of the population is over 65

Florence residents are being asked to pay the utility bills of elderly people living alone and struggling to make ends meet as the city’s leaders seek to shield the most vulnerable from soaring energy costs.

The “adopt a bill” initiative begins in the next few days and comes as the social implications of a more than 50% hike in gas and electricity bills in Italy this winter start to manifest.

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The rise in global inflation – the hit to living standards across the world

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Analysis: From Pakistan to the US, Australia to Germany, the cost of living is rising to new highs and causing new hardships

After decades lurking in the shadows, inflation is back. On Amazon, you can find fridge magnets printed with words spoken 40 years ago by Ronald Reagan, before the election that swept him into the White House.

“Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.”

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How the UK’s dutiful launderette is fading under Covid and energy prices

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A much-loved community space and an essential service, their days now seem numbered

The first thing Rajiv Shrikul does when he opens up his launderette in south Edinburgh each morning is pray. He says the 7am routine, which he started as a young boy in India, helps him cope with the kaleidoscope of personalities that pass through his shop. “Some people are angry, some are generous – you need to have a very stable mind. Meditation calms you down, especially in these hard times.”

Photograph: Murdo MacLeod

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