Unions call for end of ‘rampant profiteering’ as pre-Christmas food inflation remains at 9.2%
UNIONS called for an end to “rampant profiteering” as official figures showed food inflation remains at a painfully high 9.2 per cent in the run-up to Christmas.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said yesterday’s larger-than-expected drop in overall inflation would not offset the real-terms fall in wages this Christmas.
She said: “Headline inflation might be slowing, but workers know their wages aren’t going as far as they did two years ago.
“Even the competition regulator now admits what Unite has said all along: that firms have been exploiting the cost-of-living crisis to raise prices excessively.
“It’s time the government and Bank of England tackled the rampant profiteering in our economy to get inflation under control.”
Responding to the figures showing CPI inflation slowing to 3.9 per cent and RPI inflation to 5.3 per cent, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak added: “Today’s inflation figures will provide scant relief for hard-pressed families. Prices are still going up — just a bit more slowly.
“Household budgets remain under immense pressure. And many families will struggle with the cost of Christmas, with food and energy bills sky high.”
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Homeless people urinated on and attacked with bricks, shocking survey shows
SHOCKING levels of violence and abuse are being faced by homeless people, a new survey finds.
Rough sleepers are frequently attacked, urinated on, verbally abused and have bricks and beer cans thrown at them, according to homelessness charity Crisis.
The charity spoke to 156 people in late summer who had rough sleeping experience within the last two years.
It found that 90 per cent of them had experienced some form of violence or abuse and 51 per cent had been physically attacked.
Three-quarters cruelly had items stolen, while 72 per cent had suffered verbal abuse or harassment.
More than half (53 per cent) had something thrown at them, examples given included bricks and beer cans.
More than a quarter had been racially abused, harassed or attacked (27 per cent), while almost a fifth (18 per cent) had been urinated on.
Nine of those who responded said they had been sexually assaulted.
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Revealed: Where up to a quarter of your water bill is really going
It’s been branded ‘daylight robbery’
An investigation by the Guardian published today has revealed that staggering proportions of the public’s water bills are used to service private water firms’ debt. According to the paper’s analysis of financial data over a quarter of some water companies’ revenue goes on servicing debt.
The UK’s largest water firm, Thames Water, uses an astonishing 28 per cent of its revenue to service debt. Southern Water and South East Water both also use more than a quarter of their revenue for the same purpose.
Almost the entirety of water company revenue is made up of customer bills. As of March, the private water firms in England had racked up combined debts of more than £60 billion. Meanwhile, since privatisation of water in England in 1989, private water companies have paid out over £70 billion in dividends to shareholders.
The Guardian notes that Scottish Water, which remains publicly owned, spent just 10 per cent of its revenues financing its debt, less than all of the private water firms in England.
The revelations have led to a furious public backlash and renewed calls for England’s water to be taken back into public ownership.
Labour peer and Left Foot Forward columnist Prem Sikka branded the situation as ‘daylight robbery’, saying that money had been ‘borrowed to pay dividends, and that ‘companies want more from captive customers’.
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dizzy: This ridiculous situation is on the Conservatives watch …
Brexit may leave each Brit ‘up to £2,300 worse off’, new data suggests
‘Productivity is also down as a result of Brexit, along with a ‘permanent reduction in the willingness to invest’ in the United Kingdom’
Brexit has had a disastrous impact on the UK economy and could leave each person up to £2,300 worse off, new data has suggested.
The decision to leave the EU has had a major impact on UK economic performance, with the
OBR estimating that the economic hit caused by Brexit to the UK economy will mean GDP is reduced by 4%.
Now new data from the National Institute of Economic & Social Research (NIESR), shows that UK GDP is estimated to be 3% lower as a result of Brexit.
Britain’s oldest independent economic research institute, the NIESR, also says that the average British citizen is now £850 worse off as a result of the decision to leave the EU.
The group also highlighted that productivity is also down as a result of Brexit, along with a ‘permanent reduction in the willingness to invest’ in the United Kingdom.
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