Gordon Brown urges Sunak to address cost of living crisis in spring statement
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.
“April 2022 brings us the worst cost of living crisis for half a century. Six million low-income families have already lost £20 a week because of the cut in universal credit in October,” the letter says.
“Further cuts in the value of their incomes, as heating bills surge and food bills soar, will deepen the cost of living crisis millions face. They are unfair and for millions will be unbearable, pushing them over the edge into extreme poverty and unable to afford to heat their homes or provide the nutrition their children need.”
Sunak is urged to:
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.
Last month the chancellor announced a package of help with rising energy bills. Sunak provided a £200 discount on this year’s bills to be repaid at £40 a year and reduced council tax bills by £150 in England and Wales, with commensurate sums made available to the devolved administrations in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
He is now expected to provide more
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