Category Archives: UK cost of living crisis

UK customers face ‘catastrophic winter’ as energy costs soar, says EDF retail boss

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Half of UK households could be in fuel poverty by January unless government steps in, says managing director for customers

The UK faces a “dramatic and catastrophic winter for customers” as energy prices soar, according to a stark warning from the head of EDF Energy’s retail business.

Philippe Commaret, the energy firm’s managing director for customers, called for extra government intervention, including help for households to insulate their homes and a VAT cut for small businesses as prices jump to record levels.

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6m disabled people in UK to get £150 cost of living payment in September

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Government says one-off sum for those on certain benefits will be paid automatically from late next month

About 6 million disabled people across the UK will receive a £150 cost of living payment from the end of next month, the government has said.

The one-off payment, announced in May, will be paid automatically to people who receive certain disability benefits from 20 September, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said.

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Labour sets out plan to link minimum wage to cost of living

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Exclusive: Earnings of lowest paid could rise by £832; lower rates for 18- to 22-year-olds to be scrapped

Labour has drawn up plans to put hundreds of pounds into the pockets of the lowest paid by instructing the Low Pay Commission to factor in living costs when it sets the minimum wage.

They also want to scrap the lower pay categories for workers aged between 18 and 22, so they would all be paid at the higher rate.

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UK consumer confidence weaker than during major recessions

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Monthly look finds deepening pessimism about personal finances and prospects for the economy

Consumer confidence in the UK is weaker than during the four major recessions of the past half century as rapidly rising inflation saps morale.

Although the UK is technically yet to enter recession, the latest barometer of sentiment from the data company GfK found the public gloomier than at any time since the survey began in January 1974.

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Recall parliament early to tackle soaring energy bills, Labour urges PM

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Letter to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak calls for action to help households before price cap rises

Labour has urged Boris Johnson to recall parliament next week so the government can offer more help to struggling households before the announcement of the new energy price cap.

The opposition has written to the prime minister and both Tory leadership candidates warning that it is a “crucial deadline” for government action to tackle soaring energy bills, after inflation topped 10% for the first time in 40 years.

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Two-thirds of UK families could be in fuel poverty by January, research finds

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Estimated 45m people will struggle to pay energy bills this winter with predicted rises in price cap

Two-thirds of all UK households will be trapped in fuel poverty by January with planned government support leaving even middle-income households struggling to pay their bills, according to research.

It shows 18 million families, the equivalent of 45 million people, will be left trying to make ends meet after further predicted rises in the energy price cap in October and January.

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Interest-free loans to be rolled out in UK to help with food bills

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Supermarket Iceland is part of scheme to offer sums of £25 to £100 to buy everyday items

A zero-interest loans scheme aimed at helping thousands of people who are struggling to put food on the table is being rolled out across the UK.

The initiative, the result of a link-up between the supermarket chain Iceland and a charity-owned lender, is the latest interest-free loans scheme to launch in response to growing concern about households who find themselves at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis and are unable to access or afford existing forms of credit.

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Labour announces plan to freeze energy price cap with reinforced windfall tax

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Keir Starmer says people won’t pay ‘a penny more’ and that plan would reduce inflation

Keir Starmer has put a beefed-up £8bn windfall tax on energy company profits at the heart of a new plan to stop people having to pay “a penny more” on fuel bills this winter.

The Labour leader confirmed that under his plan the energy price cap would be frozen at the current level, meaning that an expected 80% rise in October – taking an average household bill to about £3,600 – would not go ahead.

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UK economy shrank by 0.1% in three months to June

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ONS says two bank holidays to mark Queen’s jubilee contributed to fall in output in June

Britain’s economy contracted by 0.1% in the three months to June, according to official figures that revealed the weakening outlook for the UK, which is expected to enter a recession later this year.

The dip in output in the second quarter followed 0.8% growth in the first quarter and was driven by the health sector – as Covid testing and the vaccine programme was wound down – and by retail, as household spending fell. Economists had forecast a bigger fall in output of 0.2% in the second quarter.

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Cost of living crisis: some low-paid workers miss out on £326 help

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People on universal credit have payments reduced to zero because of a quirk in the system

Some low-paid workers on universal credit have missed out on the government’s first cost of living payment because of payroll quirks that removed their benefit entitlement during the key window set by the government.

“I was going to use it to load up my gas meter, get ahead on my electricity and fill up the freezer,” said David Evans, a 55-year-old IT apprentice, of his plans for the £326 payment that in recent weeks has been landing in the bank accounts of struggling Britons.

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Tory leadership: Sunak frustrated government attempts to realise benefits of Brexit, Truss allies claim – UK politics live

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Latest updates: foreign secretary’s supporters accuse former chancellor of resisting changes to EU regulation as sixth hustings looms

Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, has used an article in today’s Guardian to propose that the government should halt the increases in the energy price cap planned for later this year and next year and, if necessary, take energy companies into public ownership to ensure that they keep prices down.

Alongside the Lib Dem plan, with which it has some similarities (they also want a price cap freeze, and more money raised through a windfall tax), it is the most radical and ambitious proposal on the table to tackle the energy bills crisis.

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Sunak accuses Truss of major U-turn after she says she will do ‘all I can to help struggling households’ with fuel bills – UK politics live

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Tory leadership contender says rival had previously dismissed direct support as ‘handouts’

Suella Braverman, the attorney general, is giving a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank on equalities and rights. There is a live feed here.

In a preview of the speech published in the Daily Telegraph, Braverman says she wants to clarify the law on trans rights as it applies in schools. She says:

When it comes to gender-questioning children, we should always have compassion. At the same time, our compassion should never blind us to the harm it is possible to do to children by misplaced affirmation. Many schools and teachers believe – incorrectly – that they are under an absolute legal obligation to treat children who are gender questioning according to the preference of the child. Many are scared of the consequences of not doing so.

I want to make it clear that it is possible, within the law, for schools to refuse to use the preferred opposite-sex pronouns of a child.

The UK and partners have condemned in the strongest terms China’s escalation in the region around Taiwan, as seen through our recent G7 statement.

I instructed officials to summon the Chinese ambassador to explain his country’s actions.

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With Keir Starmer on holiday, Labour treads water on cost of living

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Analysis: Gordon Brown, Martin Lewis and Ed Davey are the voices being heard, as the opposition is left with the same policy as Sunak

Gordon Brown has thrown down the gauntlet with his plan to halt a winter energy crisis – but not just to the Tory leadership candidates. The call to revoke the energy price cap and consider nationalising energy firms will attract a lot of attention but fundamentally it is also a chance for Labour to choose to be radical. It is likely to compound calls from activists for the party to find a new sense of urgency.

In the middle of August, politicians can often afford to take long breaks away from Westminster to recharge – and sometimes get a valuable dose of perspective. But the extent to which politicians – including those in the Labour party – have gone missing this summer is particularly striking.

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Liz Truss doubles down on tax cuts over support for energy bills

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Foreign secretary had previously said she did not want to give ‘handouts’ to people struggling with the cost of living

Liz Truss has doubled down on her refusal to offer significant help to people with soaring energy bills this winter, despite a forecast that these could exceed £4,200 annually from January, and rise further during 2023.

Truss, the runaway favourite to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister next month, has already said she does not want to give “handouts” to people struggling with bills, preferring to prioritise tax cuts.

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Ed Davey calls for halt to energy price cap increase to avoid ‘catastrophe’

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Exclusive: Lib Dem leader says new PM should let government pay £36bn cost in new ‘energy furlough scheme’

Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak should cancel the £1,400 energy price cap increase in October in a new “energy furlough scheme” and government should absorb the £36bn cost of the hike, the leader of the Liberal Democrats has said.

Ed Davey said neither candidate appeared to have any policies that grasped the magnitude of what could happen this autumn. “We are facing a catastrophe this winter, a drop in living standards unlike anything we have seen in my lifetime,” he said.

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Truss and Sunak still haven’t grasped the magnitude of Britain’s cost of living crisis

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Sunak says Truss’s plan to reverse the increase in national insurance ‘won’t touch the sides’ but neither will his

Britain is facing a cost of living crisis this winter more brutal than any in living memory. Annual energy bills for the average household are set to hit £300 a month from October, almost double the current level. Spending power will be sucked out of the economy as millions of households struggle – and fail – to make ends meet. The courts will be clogged up with people prosecuted for falling behind with their payments.

That’s the situation facing the two hopefuls slugging it out to be the country’s next prime minister, yet neither Liz Truss nor Rishi Sunak yet seems to have grasped the magnitude of the problem, in public at least.

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A third of UK parents cutting back on children’s pocket money

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Cost of living crisis has meant the average amount given to children has fallen to lowest level since 2001

Children’s piggy banks are paying a high price for the cost of living crisis after almost a third of parents cut back on pocket money during the last year.

The average amount that is going into the pockets of under-16s each week has dropped by 23% to £4.99 this year from £6.48 in 2021, according to research from the lender Halifax – the lowest amount since 2001.

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Two-thirds of UK’s top restaurants in the red after Brexit, Covid and inflation

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Meanwhile £700m of support funds in business rates relief remains unpaid by local councils

Debt repayments, staff shortages and rising energy bills have pushed almost two-thirds of the UK’s top 100 restaurants into the red, according to research that reveals the impact of the pandemic, Brexit and the cost of living crisis on the hospitality sector.

With a recession looming and further increases in energy bills weighing on businesses, a separate report found that £700m of business rates relief remains unpaid with only half of English councils paying out the support funds.

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Penny Mordaunt denies Liz Truss is ruling out more help for poor this winter

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Truss said she would lower taxes not give ‘handouts’, but ally says future support is not off the table

A senior ally of Liz Truss has played down suggestions she ruled out more emergency support payments to help people struggling through the worsening cost of living crisis this winter.

Penny Mordaunt, who is backing the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race, said Truss’s comments had been misinterpreted and she wanted to prioritise tax cuts.

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Gordon Brown: ‘Set emergency budget or risk a winter of dire poverty’

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Former PM has warned of a financial timebomb awaiting families as Labour plans a major intervention to address crisis

Boris Johnson and the Tory leadership candidates should agree an immediate emergency budget tackling the spiralling cost of living, Gordon Brown has said, or risk “condemning millions of vulnerable and blameless children and pensioners to a winter of dire poverty”.

The intervention by the former prime minister comes as new figures seen by the Observer show that more than 4 million households are on course to spend a quarter of their net income on energy.

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