The latest Which? consumer insight tracker found that price pressures were forcing half of households, an estimated 14 million, to make at least one adjustment – dip into savings, sell possessions or borrow money – to cover the cost of essentials on a daily basis.
Confidence in the future of the UK economy plummeted by 13 points to a score of -56 in the month to 13 March, the lowest level recorded since the end of 2022, the tracker found.
Which? said this score reflected “a deep-seated pessimism across the country”, with two-thirds (67%) of UK adults now expecting the national economy to worsen over the next 12 months, while just 12% think it will improve.
Confidence has not yet reached the depths of the pandemic, when the score hit -78, or the 2022 cost of living crisis, when it fell to -70, but the drop highlights a growing strain as millions of households continue to struggle.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
STARK REALITIES: Crips Against Cuts Portsmouth protest, in April 2025, as benefits applications are bureaucratic and often unfairly denied / Pic: Tim Sheerman-Chase/CC
DYLAN MURPHY looks at how Labour is breaking its pledge to protect the disabled and vulnerable
… The latest quarterly statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) paint a grim picture. As of November 2025, the sanction rate for Universal Credit (UC) claimants had risen to 5.9 per cent, an increase over the past year.
With 2.1 million claimants in conditionality regimes where sanctions can be applied, this means approximately 123,900 people were undergoing a sanction in November 2025 alone. In October 2025, 63,000 sanction decisions were made, peaking at 65,000 in January 2025.
This is not just a continuation of previous policy; it is an escalation. Before Labour took office on July 5 2024, the previous high for monthly sanctions was 57,276 in January 2024 under the Conservative government. Labour has now well exceeded this figure, reaching 65,000 in January 2025.
…
What makes this even more troubling is the severity and duration of these sanctions. According to the latest DWP statistics, there were 26,000 completed sanctions lasting between four and 13 weeks, and 2,800 sanctions lasting over 26 weeks — effectively six months or more.
A six-month sanction means six months without income, six months of choosing between heating and eating, six months of mounting debt and desperation.
This is not modern welfare policy; it is a Victorian attitude towards the “undeserving poor,” dressed up in 21st-century bureaucratic language. It reflects a punitive ideology that views poverty as a moral failing rather than a structural problem.
The human cost is catastrophic. The loss of income from a sanction can trigger a spiral into crisis. People are left unable to pay for rent, food, and heating. For those already struggling with a disability or illness, the stress and anxiety of a sanction can have a devastating impact on their mental and physical health.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Wales Green Party Leader Anthony Slaughter. Image: NoBeefKieth, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Wales Green Party has today announced that it will be standing a full slate of candidates in all 16 constituencies on 7 May 2026.
Wales Green Party Leader Anthony Slaughter said:
“I am very proud to be offering every person in Wales an opportunity to vote for a candidate that will make a real difference to their lives. Someone who will take the cost of living seriously by introducing rent controls, start cleaning up our rivers by holding Dŵr Cymru/Welsh Water to account, and stand up for international law and human rights in the face of government complicity in genocide and illegal wars.
“Since the election of Zack Polanski last September, the Green Party has seen rapid growth – with support surging the polls and in our record membership numbers followed by last month’s decisive by-election result in Gorton and Denton.
“With Greens surging in the polls, and the new proportional voting system, we can elect candidates across Wales ready to work hard for the changes we urgently need.”
Wales is the first nation in the UK to scrap the First-Past-The-Post system and the election in May will be the first under the full proportionate representation voting system that was introduced when the Senedd Reform Bill was approved on 9 May 2024.
Detroit, Michigan, residents picket DTE Energy, opposing the electric utility’s plan to provide power for a proposed $7 billion data center in rural Michigan, on December 3, 3025. (Photo by Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Sixty percent of respondents blamed the energy demand of large users like AI data centers for higher household electricity costs.
It’s been two weeks since Big Tech companies gathered at the White House to sign a nonbinding pledge saying they will not pass on higher utility costs to consumers as the rapid build-out of energy-intensive artificial intelligence data centers sends electricity bills skyrocketing—but polling out Wednesday showed a majority of Americans reject President Donald Trump’s plan to leave corporations responsible for tackling the affordability crisis.
Those same companies, said most respondents to a survey by Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative, are responsible for higher costs that have hit households across the country, and can’t be trusted to ensure life is more affordable for families.
Instead, said 61% of respondents, “cracking down on price gouging” from both utility and energy companies would be the most effective way to lower the cost of electricity. In comparison, just 35% said building more energy infrastructure to meet demands was the answer to high costs.
While Trump has been forced in recent weeks to acknowledge that “energy demands from AI data centers could unfairly drive up” people’s energy costs, as he admitted in his State of the Union address while announcing AI companies would sign his “ratepayer protection pledge,” the president has largely deflected blame regarding the affordability crisis—or denied its existence altogether.
Trump claimed at a rally in Kentucky last week that “the economy is roaring back,” even as his $1 billion-per-day, unprovoked war on Iran inflamed tensions across the Middle East and drove upoil prices.
Groundwork said in its analysis of the poll that following Trump’s announcement of the ratepayer protection pledge, “Americans reject this reliance on corporations to do the right thing.”
Elizabeth Pancotti, managing director of policy and advocacy for Groundwork Collaborative, said that “utility prices are up and consumers know the truth: These price increases are being driven by corporate greed and unchecked AI data center growth.”
Trump has pushed to accelerate the construction of new data centers by fast-tracking the permitting process.
Two-thirds of those surveyed said their monthly electricity payments have gone up in the past year, with nearly a quarter of respondents saying they had increased by “a lot.” More than 40% of people said they are now paying between $101-$200 per month for electricity.
As Common Dreams reported last November, Trump’s demand for AI companies to build massive, energy-sucking data centers in communities across the US has been linked to rising costs of consumers, with the average overdue balance on utility bills surging by 32% in the last three years and states with high concentrations of AI data centers seeing electricity prices skyrocket by as much as 16% from 2024-25.
Sixty percent of respondents told Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative that the energy demand of large commercial users like AI data centers is to blame for higher consumer prices, and the same percentage of people also blamed high compensation for utility company executives. Sixty-three percent of those polled said high profits for utility companies and their investors were to blame.
Joint Economic Committee Democrats revealed Tuesday that the average annual US electric bill increased by $110 last year.
A 2022 analysis by Accountable.US found that the nine largest US energy utility companies raked in nearly $14 billion in combined profits in the first three quarters of that year and handed out $11 billion to shareholders while tens of millions of households struggled with rising utility bills.
Nearly 60% of the 1,149 people polled by the two progressive think tanks also said the public sector must take a leadership role on providing energy, “because the public sector doesn’t collect profits and can pass on savings to customers,” and 60% said the public sector should be responsible for upgrading and modernizing the electric grid because it is a “public resource that should serve all Americans equally, not generate profits for shareholders.”
Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy for Groundwork and a former Biden administration official, said the poll revealed that “the people believe in public power.”
The groups also polled respondents on their opinions of “energy superusers,” including cryptocurrency companies, AI data centers, and AI firms.
Crypto companies were the least popular, with 54% disapproving compared to 26% who approved. Voters disapproved of AI data centers by a 16-point margin and AI companies in general by an 8-point margin.
Nearly two-thirds said they believe new AI data centers would raise their energy costs, and voters across the political spectrum opposed new data centers in their communities.
Grassroots efforts have taken off in states including Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Jersey as community members have rejected the construction of data centers on the grounds that they would consume massive amounts of water as well as electricity, threaten jobs, and take up space that could otherwise be used for affordable housing and small businesses.
“Voters feel ripped off by the corporations who hold their utilities hostage and are calling on lawmakers to put an end to the profiteering racket,” said Pancotti. “It’s time for regulators and policymakers to answer the call to protect working families from predatory utility corporations and Big Tech.”
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cNKBW5LLMlsDonald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying only 9 days ago that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9dn3j04lydo
People dispense fuel at the pump at Costco Petrol Station in West Thurrock, Essex. The conflict in Iran has caused a surge in oil and gas prices, March 5, 2026
Campaigners warn soaring oil and gas prices are pushing households into another cost-of-living crisis
TEN straight days of high oil and gas prices are pushing households into another cost-of-living crisis, campaigners warned today, as costs suffered from the US-Israel attack on Iran.
The warning came as Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she had asked the competition watchdog to “crack down” on “rip-off” fuel prices ahead of a meeting with energy bosses to warn against war profiteering.
Ms Reeves insisted she “will not tolerate” firms exploiting uncertainty in the Middle East for excess financial gain.
The government has promised to intervene if companies engage in “unfair” practices that would hit customers facing a rise in the price of home heating oil, which is not covered by Ofgem’s energy price cap.
Rural communities which rely on oil to heat their homes are already being hit hard, according to charity Rural Action Derbyshire (RAD), which runs an oil-buying scheme.
The heating oil market is closely connected to the daily market for jet fuel, meaning price rises are typically passed directly to customers.
RAD said homes in Derbyshire saw the cost of 500 litres jump from around £300 to £700-800 in the week after the conflict.
For an average household, 500 litres lasts two to three months.
STARK REALITIES: Crips Against Cuts Portsmouth protest, in April 2025, as benefits applications are bureaucratic and often unfairly denied / Pic: Tim Sheerman-Chase/CC
People dispense fuel at the pump at Costco Petrol Station in West Thurrock, Essex. The conflict in Iran has caused a surge in oil and gas prices, March 5, 2026