By Jason Brock
Another week, another raft of worrying forecasts on the spiralling cost of living. We’ve now heard that Ofgem is raising the energy price cap to £2,800 in October – around £1,000 higher than last October. With inflation now running at 9%, a 40-year high, and the tax burden on individuals and families at its highest in 70 years, these are tremendously worrying times for many people.
The charity Action for Children has warned that some poorer families were skipping meals, wearing coats indoors to stay warm, and living in the dark because they cannot afford to switch on lights. And the Office for National Statistics has said earnings, when adjusted for inflation, dropped by 1.2% between January and March – the biggest fall since 2013.
As the Leader of the Council, my priority remains ensuring every individual in Reading, no matter their circumstances or background, can share in the town’s success. We know our town’s powerful economy sits alongside areas with low incomes and high unemployment. This makes Reading the third most unequal place in England. Along with our partners, we are creating more apprenticeships to open new doors for young people. We are putting pressure on more employers to join the Council in embracing the real Living Wage and we are empowering Reading’s incredible voluntary and community sector to create new opportunities and pathways for people, which would not otherwise exist. There is little doubt, however, that the growing cost of living crisis makes achieving this so much more difficult.
As a local authority, and aside from our work to create better life chances for residents, we can ensure we design local funding schemes which get support to the people in Reading who need it the most. To that end, we will once again be distributing vouchers to support families, individuals and older residents across Reading struggling with the increased cost of living in the challenging weeks and months to come.
The latest package of support from the Household Support Fund totals £1.13 million in our town. For eligible residents struggling with soaring energy bills, energy vouchers worth £49 per family will be sent to around 4,000 families in Reading with school-age children eligible for Pupil Premium Free School Meals, vulnerable children up to nursery age and care leavers. Energy vouchers worth £98 per individual will be sent to around 4,300 older Reading residents receiving state pension and who are also on the Council Tax Reduction Scheme or who are in receipt of pension credit.
And if you ever wanted any evidence that this cost of living crisis is worsening by the day locally, Council officers have predicted they expect more than 400 additional people to become eligible for energy vouchers over the next six month period. It’s a sobering thought.
For families struggling to pay for food during school holidays, food vouchers will once again be sent to around 6,000 families with school age children eligible for Pupil Premium Free School Meals, vulnerable children up to nursery age and care leavers by the Council. One £15 voucher per child will be sent for the May half-term break.
The Council is also providing additional grant support to local community organisations who continue to do a tremendous job in helping vulnerable families with food. They are Readifood, the Whitley Community Development Agency, Weller Centre, New Beginnings and Wycliffe. An additional £150,000 grant support will be passed to Citizens Advice Reading to support vulnerable individuals or families with energy vouchers and energy packs. £10,000 in funding has also been allocated to support residents struggling with housing arrears.
Naturally, the Government’s recent announcement of further support for people is welcome, but it’s still short of the Emergency Budget the country really needs to holistically address the crisis – we’re simply bailing out water without working to patch the hull. The failure to think systematically simply means we keep having to be responsive as things inevitably, and entirely foreseeably, worsen. Since the Government is evidently picking up Labour’s policies and advice, though, perhaps I should be hopeful that they’ll eventually follow suit on this too.
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council and ward member for Southcote
