2021–present United Kingdom cost-of-living crisis
This is caused in part by a rise in inflation in both the UK and the world in general, as well as the economic impact of issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Brexit.
The Big Issue newspaper defines a cost-of-living crisis as "a scenario in which the cost of everyday essentials like energy and food is rising much faster than average incomes".
[11] Causes unique to the UK include labour shortages related to foreign workers leaving due to Brexit, and additional taxes on households.
Energy costs for the typical British household were expected to rise 80% from October 2022, from £1,971 to £3,549,[17] until Liz Truss, who was Prime Minister at the time, announced measures to limit these increases.
These cuts aimed to encourage foreign investment and economic growth but were not costed and spooked financial markets, causing the pound to fall to a low of $1.03.
[26] On 8 December 2022 The Guardian reported that according to research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, over 3 million[contradictory] UK low-income households could not afford to heat their homes.
A government spokesperson said that the support of the most vulnerable remains a priority and that millions of the most needy people are being given at least £1,200 in direct payments to protect them against rising prices in addition to the £400 being given to each household towards energy costs.
In response to the problem, some supermarkets began to roll out new retail loss prevention systems, requiring customers to scan their printed receipt on an optical scanner as proof of purchase before they can exit the store.
[28][29] The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said their research showed that hundreds of thousands of households could not afford to protect themselves from cold and that prices of essentials were rising steeply with energy bills and were nearly double the level the previous winter.
[30] On 5 September 2023, Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority in Europe, issued a Section 114 notice declaring itself effectively bankrupt.
[6][33][34][35] In June 2022, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng ordered an urgent review of the motor fuel market to complete by 7 July, to see if consumer prices were excessively high.
[36] The measures were called insufficient by many people and organisations, including outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with the Bank of England predicting that the UK would enter recession by 2023.
[37][38] Johnson's successor Liz Truss announced a package of subsidies for rising energy bills with an estimated potential cost of up to £150 billion, depending on future wholesale prices.
[39][40] The subsidies were initially planned to last for two years for consumers and six months for businesses, but in October the new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that the package would continue until April 2023 and that from this date support would be targeted at "the most vulnerable.
The campaigner Jack Monroe warned that the crisis could be fatal for some of the children of low-income parents, and asked the government to increase benefits in line with inflation.
[49] The Green Party of England and Wales supports increasing Universal Credit and implementing a home insulation scheme to reduce energy use and cut fuel bills as part of its stance on the cost-of-living crisis.
[57] In September 2022, the BBC soap opera Doctors began covering the topic in a long-running issue-led storyline featuring Scarlett Kiernan (Kia Pegg) and her father struggling to survive.
