Cost of Living crisis

‘Never-ending cost-of-living crisis’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/never-ending-cost-living-crisis

 An online energy bill

Labour urged to reform energy pricing over surprise rise in bills

LABOUR was urged to reform energy pricing yesterday as unions and campaigners warned that a surprise 2 per cent rise in bills will hit 12 million homes already in fuel poverty.

GMB union hit out at the “never-ending cost-of-living crisis” after regulator Ofgem announced that the average household’s energy bill is to rise to £1,755 a year from October — despite wholesale prices falling by 2 per cent over the past three months.

Standing charges — the figure consumers pay per day to have energy supplied to their homes — are set to rise by 4 per cent for electricity and a whopping 14 per cent for gas, or 7p a day.

The 2.21 per cent year-on-year rise means average annual energy bills will be £713 higher than in winter 2020/21.

GMB national secretary Andy Prendergast said: “People are already struggling under a never-ending cost-of-living crisis.

“Any increase in energy prices could crash millions of household budgets.

“To make any green transition work, the UK has to be pragmatic: taking advantage of cheap gas prices to cut bills instead of subsidising heat pumps for the richest.

“The poorest in society must not be the ones who bear the biggest burden for saving our planet.”

Energy minister Michael Shanks blamed wholesale gas prices remaining 75 per cent above their levels before Russia invaded Ukraine. 

But End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “We need urgent reforms to fix the broken pricing system, steps to ensure households benefit from targeted support for cold homes, a nationwide insulation and ventilation drive, reform of energy trading rules and lower standing charges.

“Meanwhile, expansion of renewables and upgrading the grid must be funded by investment or by tackling excess network and energy company profits, not by loading more costs onto struggling households.”

Pointing out that gas unit rates remain almost double pre-crisis levels and the cost of electricity in Britain is set by the most expensive generator — usually gas-fired power stations — he added: “It’s time for action — wind and solar are far cheaper ways of generating power and North Sea gas reserves are unable to meet domestic heating needs from 2027.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/never-ending-cost-living-crisis

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Government urged to drop ‘parasitic’ private contracts as rail fares set to soar

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-urged-drop-parasitic-private-contracts-rail-fares-set-soar

 People using a ticket machine at Waterloo train station in London

THE government was urged to ditch “parasitic” private contracts today after it emerged that regulated train fares in England could soar by 5.8 per cent next year.

This year fares went up 4.6 per cent — one point higher than last July’s retail prices index (RPI).

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The government is set to renationalise all train operators by 2027 and integrate them into Great British Railways, a new public body which will also oversee rail infrastructure.

However GBR will continue to lease rolling stock, carriages and locomotives, from private firms. Outsourced contracts, such as those for cleaning staff, are also set to remain.

A spokesperson for rail union RMT said: “Our analysis shows that £720 million is extracted each year from our railways through rolling stock leasing, outsourcing and subcontracting.

“Eliminating that profiteering would allow fares to be cut by 6.5 per cent.

“The government has an opportunity under GBR to remove these parasitic contracts that drain resources from the network and instead offer real value for money for passengers through public ownership.”

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Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-urged-drop-parasitic-private-contracts-rail-fares-set-soar

Continue ReadingGovernment urged to drop ‘parasitic’ private contracts as rail fares set to soar

Campaigners urge government to prioritise ending fuel poverty in home upgrade plan

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-urge-government-prioritise-ending-fuel-poverty-home-upgrade-plan

 An elderly lady holding a cup of tea at home in Liverpool with her electric fire on

THE Warm Homes Plan should be judged on how much it cuts fuel poverty rather than focusing on technical targets, campaigners urged the government yesterday.

The £13.2 billion scheme aims to improve energy efficiency in five million homes by 2030.

End Fuel Poverty Coalition has written to energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, outlining key recommendations to ensure it delivers for those most in need.

Campaigners suggest that the scheme’s success should not be judged by how many insulation measures are installed, or homes moved to EPC band C, but by how far it goes in ending fuel poverty. 

About five million households in Britain are trapped deep fuel poverty, according to a University of York study.

Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition (EFPC), said: “Cold homes cause suffering, cost lives and drive up costs for the NHS. 

“The Warm Homes Plan can be the solution — but only if it’s designed around the real needs of people, not just technical targets.”

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article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-urge-government-prioritise-ending-fuel-poverty-home-upgrade-plan

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.

Continue ReadingCampaigners urge government to prioritise ending fuel poverty in home upgrade plan

The rich are a threat to our economy and our democracy

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/rich-are-threat-our-economy-and-our-democracy

 Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaigners stage a protest on College Green in Westminster, London, as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivers her Budget in the Houses of Parliament, October 30, 2024

HMRC’S ignorance about how much tax British billionaires pay exposes the missing factor in government announcements on public spending.

Tight finances are used as excuses to attack pensioners and deny justice to the wronged, like the Waspi women.

Even when — thanks to a welcome revolt against Rachel Reeves’s renewed austerity by Labour MPs — cuts to disability payments are reduced in scope, ministers suggest the pain will be shunted sideways: it will make it harder to lift the two-child benefit cap, or force a regressive freeze on income tax thresholds (so they don’t rise with inflation, distributing the tax burden downwards).

The public accounts committee’s Lloyd Hatton says its report is “not concerned with political debate around the redistribution of wealth,” and is intended solely to address shortcomings in HMRC’s ability to collect the tax owed.

But the doubt it casts on HMRC’s own estimates of the “tax gap” (the difference between tax owed in theory and tax collected) has significant implications for public spending choices.

Besides, the failure to introduce land and wealth taxes is one reason the very wealthy are able to hide their assets, and indeed real incomes, so effectively.

The concentration of extreme wealth among an ever smaller number of people is accelerating. It is pronounced enough — with just 50 families owning as much as the poorer 50 per cent of the British population — to distort the entire economy.

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Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Continue ReadingThe rich are a threat to our economy and our democracy

Starmer’s Labour: cuts to everything except the war machine

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmers-labour-cuts-everything-except-war-machine

The BBC and OBR claim that failing to cut disability benefits could ‘destabilise the economy’ while ignoring the spendthrift approach to tens of billions on military spending that really spirals out of control, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP

THE Labour leadership is adopting a scorched-earth policy to social programmes and public spending, with no section of society safe from their cuts. The consequences will be very grave for some of the poorest in society, for society as a whole and for the Labour Party.

In the first year of a Labour government, we have had cuts to the winter fuel allowance, a refusal to budge on the two-child benefit cap, cuts to sickness and disability benefits, and a tightening of departmental spending overall, which means cuts for some and a squeeze for the NHS.

This list is growing longer all the time. The latest target is the provision of special educational needs (SEN) spending in our schools, which ministers claim is spiralling out of control. There is also the beginning of a concerted PR campaign to abolish the “triple-lock” on the state pension, even though the meagre amount provided is one of the lowest in western Europe and insufficient for a decent retirement.

The main exception to this all-round austerity drive is military spending, which is really spiralling out of control. In fact, the pace of spending cuts elsewhere is designed to fill the real hole in government finances caused by the commitment to raise military spending to 5 per cent of GDP, a promise given to placate Donald Trump by Keir Starmer at the Nato summit.

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Dianne Abbott’s article continues at https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmers-labour-cuts-everything-except-war-machine

Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.


Continue ReadingStarmer’s Labour: cuts to everything except the war machine