Category Archives: Cost of living crisis

‘We want justice, not fuel’: Sri Lanka’s Tamils on north-south divide

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In the middle of a crippling economic crisis, demonstrating is a luxury the country’s Tamil minority cannot afford

For months now, the sounds of protest and anger have rung out across Colombo, Sri Lanka’s largest city. Every day, along the city’s seafront promenade of Galle Face, people have gathered in their tens of thousands to rage against the government for plunging the country into its worst financial crisis in modern history.

But 200 miles north, in the district of Mullaitivu, the streets are silent. The economic crisis has hit Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, who are concentrated in the north and eastern provinces, as hard as those in the south; the fishermen here say they are already starving. But they will also tell you that protesting is a privilege in Sri Lanka – one they have never been afforded.

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Brexit is making cost of living crisis worse, new study claims

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EU withdrawal fuelling higher import costs and costing British workers nearly £500 a year, says Resolution Foundation

Britain’s cost of living crisis is being made worse by Brexit dragging down the country’s growth potential and costing workers hundreds of pounds a year in lost pay, new research claims.

The Resolution Foundation thinktank and academics from the London School of Economics said the average worker in Britain was now on course to suffer more than £470 in lost pay each year by 2030 after rising living costs are taken into account, compared with a remain vote in 2016.

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Energy price cap in Britain could near £3,000 this autumn

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New forecasts suggest household bills could rise more than £1,000 after another spike in wholesale prices

The energy price cap could reach nearly £3,000 in the Britain at the beginning of October, with the planned increase possibly being more than £1,000 according to a new forecast.

It is expected to rise to £2,980.63 for the next period, which runs between October and December, after another spike in wholesale demand prices last week.

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Rail strikes will go ahead as RMT leader says government ‘actively prevented settlement to dispute’ – as it happened

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General secretary Mick Lynch confirms strike action will proceed, as transport secretary Grant Shapps says rail unions to blame

Tim Shoveller, the chief negotiator for Network Rail, told the Today programme this morning that he did not think the government needed to get involved in the talks on the rail dispute. He said this was an issue for the industry to resolve with trade unions.

He said managers wanted to make the rail industry “more efficient to generate the funds so that we can make the pay awards that our colleagues want”.

I think it would be a disaster for the country. It would be a disaster for our passengers and, look, really bad for our employees, who would lose loads of money by having a long, drawn-out strike – that really is the worst place we can get to.

At the end of the day, the facts about the support the government’s provided in terms of the £16bn through Covid, etc – all of those are well-known and documented.

The Criminal Bar Association (CBA), which represents barristers in England and Wales, said several days of court walkouts will begin from next week.

The promised industrial action, announced on Monday following a ballot of members, comes at a time of significant backlogs across the court system.

This extraordinary commitment to the democratic process reflects a recognition amongst criminal barristers at all levels of call and across all circuits that what is at stake is the survival of a profession of specialist criminal advocates and of the criminal justice system which depends so critically upon their labour.

Without immediate action to halt the exodus of criminal barristers from our ranks, the record backlog that has crippled our courts will continue to inflict misery upon victims and defendants alike, and the public will be betrayed.

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Thousands march in London over cost of living crisis

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Demonstration organised by TUC calls on government to make ‘better deal’ for people struggling to cope with soaring inflation

Thousands of people have gathered in London to protest against the government’s lack of action in tackling the cost of living crisis.

Protesters marched from Portland Place to Parliament Square for a rally with speakers including Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, which organised the event.

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‘Great equaliser’: fears higher parking costs may limit access to iconic Sydney beaches

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NSW Council of Social Services says councils should not make beach visits out of reach for lower-income families

A trip to the beach is about to get more expensive as parking rates rise in some parts of Sydney, causing concerns they will put some of city’s best natural wonders out of reach for lower-income families already facing increasing cost-of-living pressures.

Mosman council said it will increase parking rates by up to 75% at popular spots, including Balmoral Beach.

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UK food price rises could hit 15% over summer, report says

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Ukraine war, China lockdowns and Brexit help push up inflation, with products that rely on wheat worst hit

Food price rises in the UK could hit 15% this summer – the highest level in more than 20 years – with inflation lasting into the middle of next year, according to a report.

Meat, cereals, dairy, fruit and vegetables are likely to be the worst affected as the war in Ukraine combines with production lockdowns in China and export bans on key food stuffs such as palm oil from Indonesia and wheat from India, the grocery trade body IGD warns.

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Appeal court rejects last-ditch legal bid to block flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda – live

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Court of appeal judges have rejected a last-ditch legal bid to block a flight due to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda on Tuesday

Q: Your Northern Ireland protocol plan is holed below the water line because it has so much opposition in your party, isn’t it?

Johnson says the government needs to resolve the problems with the protocol.

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Four in 10 pandemic-era mutual aid groups still active, UK data suggests

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Groups set up to help out neighbours in 2020 are now helping people cope with cost of living, say campaigners

Four in 10 of the mutual aid groups that were set up at the start of the pandemic to make it easier for neighbours to help each other are still active and many have become established charities helping local people cope with the cost of living crisis, analysis suggests.

When the pandemic began, an estimated 4,000 mutual aid groups sprang up to offer assistance to those in need with a range of essential activities, from food shopping to collecting prescriptions and providing Covid information.

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Digitisation of food vouchers for UK families left them hungry and desperate

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Analysis: in a botched upgrade the fruit and veg Healthy Start scheme turned away numerous eligible low-income families

As the cost of living crisis blew up in March, and millions faced “starve or freeze” choices, it emerged – with dismal timing – that the rollout of the government’s newly digitised Healthy Start fruit and veg voucher scheme for low-income mothers was in chaos.

About 550,000 mothers who are pregnant or who have children aged three or under are in theory eligible for the scheme, which is worth between £4.25 and £8.50 a week. Designed to ensure their kids get their five-a-day portions, milk or formula, it should have been a timely boost.

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Zero-growth warning for UK economy as petrol prices surge

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OECD singles out cost of living crisis as a cause of Britain’s slide down growth league table

Boris Johnson’s attempt to reset his troubled premiership has received a double blow after petrol prices had their biggest daily rise in 17 years and a leading international thinktank said the UK economy would slow to a standstill next year.

Fears that Britain is heading for a prolonged period of 1970s-style stagflation intensified amid fresh evidence of the damaging impact of the war in Ukraine on the cost of living and growth.

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Albanese says cost of living concerns will be ‘front and centre’ of cabinet meeting

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Inflation, energy prices and wages growth on Labor’s agenda as pressure builds to provide relief to low income earners before October budget

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says a cabinet meeting on Thursday will consider how best to respond to the cost of living crisis facing Australians amid warnings inflation will significantly worsen this year.

The meeting of his new inner ministry comes after the Reserve Bank this week lifted the official cash rate by 50 basis points to try and get on top of rapidly growing inflation. All of the big four banks have passed on the rate hike to mortgage holders.

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Senior Tory MPs renew calls to Boris Johnson for urgent tax cuts

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High-profile MPs back demand from Adam Smith Institute to reduce tax burden and ease cost of living crisis

Senior Conservatives from across the party have renewed calls for Boris Johnson to implement urgent tax cuts as Downing Street played down the prospects of a shift in policy.

A string of high-profile MPs, from Steve Baker on the party’s right wing to Damian Green on its left, have backed a fresh demand from the Adam Smith Institute for the government to reduce the tax burden.

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Food strategy for England likely to be watered down

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People working with government on strategy say ambitious plans to tackle nature, climate and health crises have been ditched

The government is expected to water down its upcoming food strategy for England, ignoring the ambitious recommendations proposed in two government-commissioned reports, campaigners say.

The white paper, due later this month, was supposed to be a groundbreaking plan to tackle the nature and climate emergencies in response to eye-catching recommendations urged by the restaurateur Henry Dimbleby in his reports.

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‘Out of control’ gas prices likely to filter down to Australian consumers, food processor says

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Industry advocates push for eastern states to establish gas reserves as soaring energy costs put pressure on companies

One of Australia’s largest regional food processors says energy costs are “out of control”, with already elevated gas prices tripling since the company signed new contracts in early 2022.

Consumers will inevitably cop higher prices on their products with other costs also on the rise, including a jump of as much as 40% for raw materials such as tomatoes, carrots and apples in the past year, Jason Fritsch, the chief executive of Kagome, said.

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Labour urges spending watchdog to assess impact of chancellor’s £21bn package

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Shadow Treasury secretary asks Office for Budget Responsibility to examine Rishi Sunak’s emergency cost of living measures

Labour has called for an independent assessment of whether Rishi Sunak’s £21bn cost of living emergency package could cause inflation to rise even higher and a verdict on the fiscal impact of substantial borrowing.

Pat McFadden, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, wrote to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to ask it to analyse the impact of the measures.

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Most small firms fear long-term fallout from UK’s cost of living crisis

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Half worry rocketing prices will cut spending, while three in four fear long-term damage to businesses

Three-quarters of small and medium-sized companies are worried about the long-term impact the cost of living crisis, soaring energy bills and rising inflation will have on their business, a survey has found.

Just over half (51%) of SMEs said they were concerned that rocketing prices would dent consumer spending, in response to Barclays’ SME Barometer, a quarterly survey of business sentiment conducted for the bank.

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‘Free meals for homeless’ cafe in London’s East End at risk as donations dry up

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The Canvas’s founder says takings were so low as cost of living crisis bites she thought tills were broken

The founder of a London social enterprise that gives free meals to refugees and the homeless has said it is at risk of closure because the cost of living crisis has led to a collapse in sales and donations.

Ruth Rogers, the founder of The Canvas in the East End of London, said there had been a dramatic collapse in trade in its cafe in recent weeks, with takings so low that one day she thought its tills were broken.

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Boris Johnson confident Tory MPs back him to survive as party leader and prime minister – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. Boris Johnson changes ministerial code to axe need to resign for rule breaches

The Conservative MP Paul Holmes, who represents Eastleigh, has announced that he is resigning as a parliamentary private secretary in response to the revelations in the Sue Gray report.

Holmes, who was elected in 2019, was PPS to Priti Patel, the home secretary. A PPS – an unpaid ministerial “bag carrier” – is not a member of the government, but is considered part of the “payroll vote” and obliged to support the government in all divisions. Being a PPS is normally a stepping stone towards becoming a minister.

Revelations from the Sue Gray report that staff and cleaners were not treated properly is both disappointing and unacceptable. It is right that the prime minister apologised to staff. It clearly showed a culture in No 10 that was distasteful, and I am glad that there have been several reforms that Sue Gray has welcomed.

It is clear to me that a deep mistrust in both the government and the Conservative party has been created by these events, something that pains me personally as someone who always tries to represent Eastleigh and its people with integrity. Whether that is taking up your issues in parliament or helping people with their problems closer to home, since 2019 we have completed over 12,000 pieces of constituency casework. It is distressing to me that this work on your behalf has been tarnished by the toxic culture that seemed to have permeated No 10.

I’m not going to pretend that this is going to fix everything for everybody immediately. There are still going to be pressures. But it’s a very, very substantial commitment by the government to getting us through what will be, I’m afraid, still a bumpy time with the increase in energy prices around the world.

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Sunak U-turns on ‘energy profits levy’ in £15bn cost of living package

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Chancellor’s measures, including tax on oil and gas companies, criticised as too late and a ‘drop in the ocean’

Rishi Sunak bowed to months of pressure over the cost of living crisis with a £15bn package of support, part-funded by executing a remarkable U-turn to impose a windfall tax on energy companies.

Announcing the measures on Thursday, in a bruising week for the government, the chancellor said his “significant set of interventions” would help the poorest in society – with a one-off £650 payment for 8 million families on means-tested benefits, alongside an extra £200 for all energy bill payers that will not have to be repaid.

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