Green activists in North Staffordshire have joined with representatives from the national party to call for the government to act on the growing cost-of-living crisis.
Since late last year the UK has experienced problems caused by rising inflation, predicted to peak at 7.25%, outstripping corresponding rises in pay, government plans to raise National Insurance payments and rising energy bills.
Regulator OFGEM announced earlier this year that household energy bills would rise by 54%, resulting in millions of households having to find an extra £693. In response the government announced a £200 ‘loan’ for all households combined with an £150 rebate on their council tax for people living in band A-D properties.
The Green Party argue that the government has underestimated the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on families struggling to make ends meet and its relation to the threat posed by climate change.
A Green Party national spokesperson said “The cost-of-living crisis leaves many low-income households having to choose between heating and eating. We need a programme to lift people out of fuel poverty while creating hundreds of new jobs and slashing carbon emissions”.
The £200 towards energy bills set to be given to every household is, they say, a ‘buy now pay later’ scheme that will only create more debt for people who are in financial difficulties already.
They say the government is allowing energy companies to make record profits ‘off the back of ordinary people’s misery’ and call for a ‘dirty profits tax’ to be levied against big energy companies to pay for support for people struggling to pay their bills and initiatives to make UK homes more energy efficient.
They cite as an example the ‘Lewes model’, which has seen the Green led District Council work collaboratively with neighbouring authorities to insulate social housing, in the process helping people to cut their bills and creating jobs.
A spokesperson for the Green Party said that “by pooling resources, neighbouring councils can create the necessary funding and ensure there is a locally trained workforce that can both deliver a retrofit programme and boost the local economy. Developing a guaranteed pipeline of work and economies of scale means private rented accommodation and homeowners can benefit from cheaper retrofitting too”.
Adding that Green councillors in Lewes were “showing leadership, demonstrating how we can do things differently, by implementing a ground-up approach, where local councils in an area work collaboratively together”, and addressing problems that previous initiatives from local and national government had failed to address.
The squeeze on household incomes has been brought into focus this week as chancellor Rishi Sunak prepares to make his spring budget statement.
He is facing calls from the Resolution Foundation and other groups campaigning on living standards to use it to help struggling families. These include scrapping the planned 1.25% rise in National Insurance and raising pensions and benefits by 8.1% rather than the 3.1% currently planned.
On Saturday 2nd April trades unionists, Greens and community activists will take to the streets around as part of a third round of protests planned by the People’s Assembly to highlight the impact of the cost-of-living crisis. Details of an event to be held in Stoke-on-Trent will be announced shortly.
A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said “We have seen over the past decade how hard people in Stoke-on-Trent and towns like it have been hit by austerity, soaring energy bills and wages that can’t keep pace with inflation will make things even worse”.
Adding that “if the government do not act now and do so with more understanding of the challenges working families face, there is a real risk that a situation that is already a crisis could quickly become a disaster”.