London mayor urges government to tackle the ‘spiralling’ cost of living
Rising food, energy and fuel costs are hitting the capital’s residents particularly hard, with a new poll showing that the cost of living has increased over the past six months for nearly 80% of Londoners.
The cost of living in the capital was already a challenge before the pandemic, with 2.4 million Londoners living in poverty. Increasing costs are hitting the poorest households the hardest and the government’s upcoming changes to tax and benefits are set to drive an estimated 130,000 more into poverty.
A recent YouGov poll of over 1,000 London adults showed that 34% of Londoners have struggled to pay their household bills in the last six months, with 13% struggling to make ends meet, going without essentials or relying on credit.
The poll also showed that more than 500,000 London households were in fuel poverty in 2019, and the recent rises in energy prices are estimated to have put a further 75,000 households into fuel poverty ahead of further increases in April this year.
Energy prices are expected to rise again from April as Ofgem are set to announce the level of the energy price cap in the coming weeks. This will likely see energy prices rise by another 45% or £600 per year on average.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called on the government to do more to tackle these rising costs of living and to help those most in need. He criticised the reversal of the temporary £20 Universal Credit uplift and said that Ministers must find ways to increase support, including extending eligibility for the Warm Home Discount, investing in multi-year energy efficiency programmes to help low-income households receive support to reduce their energy use, and extending the Household Support Fund that enables councils to provide hardship support.
Mr Khan, said: ‘I am hugely concerned about the impact that the spiralling cost of living is having on Londoners. Rising food and energy prices are hitting Londoners hard and the Government’s ill-judged changes to benefits and tax are only set to make things worse.’
‘It cannot be right that millions are living in poverty and that so many people are struggling to get by each month. As Mayor, I’m doing all I can to support Londoners, but this is a national problem and the government needs to urgently step up and support people through this cost of living crisis.’
The cost of living in London was already a challenge before the pandemic with prices 7% higher than the UK average, housing costs taking up a higher proportion of income, and the average weekly pay 5.9% lower than in 2010, when accounting for inflation, compared to 0.9% across the UK.
In related news, Covid-19 has cost businesses in cities and large town centres more than a third of their potential takings since March 2020, according to a new report from Centre for Cities.
Photo by Rithika Gopalakrishnan