The Spring Statement Offers Nothing to Families Struggling with Soaring Energy Bills. By Adam Colclough

 

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsey has attacked as ‘negligent’ the Spring statement delivered by the chancellor yesterday, he said “It’s negligence in the extreme to have offered so little to help those struggling through this cost-of-living crisis”.

Rishi Sunak gave his statement to parliament on the state of the UK economy and what steps the government plans to take to address the cost-of-living crisis impacting the lives of millions of people.

Announced in the statement were a 5p cut to fuel duty that will last until March 2023, and a pledge to cut income tax from 20p to 19p in the pound by the end of this parliament. Measures were also included to remove VAT from solar panels and insulation products along with an additional £500million for the Housing Support Fund to help local authorities support vulnerable households struggling with rising living costs.

The economic outlook, as set out in the statement, is grim with growth predictions being downgraded from 6.0% to 3.8% with further falls predicted and inflation set to hit 8.7% by the end of the year.

The statement comes as the cost of living reflected in what we pay for things like food rose by 6.2% over the twelve months to February, the steepest rate of increase for 30 years. Rising inflation and utility bills are also adding to an unprecedented squeeze on family incomes. 

 

 

Analysis carried out for the Bank of England by the Jubilee Debt campaign found that found that the number of families in the UK struggling with debt had risen by a third before the winter rise in energy prices.

In September 10% of the households from which data was analyzed reported that loan repayments were a significant burden on their finances and that their average monthly repayments had risen sharply over the past year.

Joe Cox, senior policy officer at the Jubilee Debt Campaign told the Guardian the ‘worsening debt crisis’ was ‘toppling households up and down the country’. He called on the government to do more to help people who are struggling.

The Resolution Foundation criticized the chancellor for not doing enough to help low paid workers, saying just 1 in 8 would see their tax bill fall by the end of this parliament, speaking to the Guardian chief executive Torsten Bell Mr. Sunak had come to parliament “promising support with the cost of living today, and tax cuts tomorrow,” adding that his “decision not to target support at those hardest hit by rising prices will leave low-and-middle income households painfully exposed”.

Benefits and pension rates will not be increased in line with inflation and the Resolution Foundation has warned that 1.3 million people, including half a million children will be at risk of falling into poverty as a result.

The measures announced in the Spring statement have also been criticised by the office for Budget Responsibility, who said that even with the measures put in place living standards will fall for most people by 2% this year, the fastest drop since records began in the 1950’s.

Also speaking to the Guardian Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies said that in the face of the ‘biggest hit to household finances’ since records began and that the chancellor had “done nothing more for those dependent on benefits, the very poorest, besides a small amount of extra cash for local authorities to dispense at their discretion”. 

 

 

The Green Party have been leading calls on the government to act to support families and individuals facing a rise in their food and energy bills and to do so in a way that is environmentally sustainable.

In a letter sent to the chancellor at the end of February Green Party MP Caroline Lucas called on the government to ‘break the government’s addiction’ to seeking endless growth and build an economy focused on enhancing the ‘health and wellbeing of ‘individuals, communities, and the environment’.

Ahead of Wednesday’s statement the Greens also called on the chancellor to reinstate the £20 uplift to Universal Credit and extend Winter fuel payments to help struggling households and for UK banks to be banned from investing in fossil fuels.

The Green Party also urged the chancellor to use the Spring statement to announce a plan to retrofit 10million homes across the UK to make them more energy efficient funded by a windfall tax on the energy companies.

Party co-leader Adrian Ramsey said this would “simultaneously address the three most pressing crises we are facing - the cost-of-living crisis, fossil fuel dependency which is funding a deadly invasion in Ukraine and climate change”.

Responding to the Spring statement Adrian Ramsey said “While the cut to VAT on energy efficiency measures and renewables is a positive step and a win for green campaigners, it will not have the impact we need without a proper government retrofit programme to support people to take advantage of it. The fact there was no clear plan for a full retrofit programme, which would help keep people warm and reduce eye-watering energy bills, shows the absolute lack of vision this floundering government has”.

Adding that “the promised future tax cut shows the Chancellor is focused on winning the next general election, and not helping those on benefits and lower incomes who are in desperate need right now.”