County Durham’s Tory-led Coalition council must act now to address the intensifying cost of living crisis, say Labour chiefs.
Cllr Rob Crute will ask Full Council to back calls for immediate Government action to address the crippling financial burden on families due to the “perfect storm” of rising costs.
In a plan, County Durham Labour Deputy Leader and Shadow Cabinet for Finance, Cllr Crute will ask Conservative, Lib Dem and Independent councillors to recognise the potential calamity faced by many in the county, and call on the Government to mitigate the impact by introducing vital measures to support families, including:
- remove the 5% VAT rate on gas and electricity bills
- reinstate the £20 uplift to Universal Credit
- freeze energy price cap to hold bills and limit risk of a fuel poverty crisis
- scrap National Insurance rises scheduled to hit pay packets from April
- increase benefit payments from planned 3.1% to 6% to help hardest hit households
- introduce a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas companies
- offer council tax rebates to those who need them most
County Durham Labour also wants to see plans to wean people off expensive and harmful fossil fuels by putting funding into clean energy and home insulation projects.
“According to the ONS, wages in real terms are falling for the third time in a decade,” said Cllr Crute. “People face the perfect storm for a cost-of-living crisis yet hear nothing from a Government about how it will help, as it blunders from one self-inflicted crises to another. Indeed, ministers are more focused on saving the Prime Minister’s bacon than supporting the people they’re elected to serve.
“Families in County Durham will be hit with a promise-breaking tax rise in the form of National Insurance contribution at a time when spiralling energy bills are thudding on doormats, grossly-inflated by energy price cap changes that are likely to soar by 50% and which will almost certainly increase the number of households in fuel poverty from 4m to 6m.
“In addition, Universal Credit claimants are already struggling as the Government’s decision to remove the £20 uplift eats into household budgets. Then to round this off, inflation rates are set to hit their highest level in over 30 years, jumping from 5.4% to 6-7% by the Spring.
“This chaotic Government is doing nothing to address this and will continue to ignore it unless councils let them know it is unacceptable. We need this Coalition running the council to tell the Government this will not stand, that people and families need immediate support.”
The Resolution Foundation has estimated that, when all these economic factors come together, household costs will increase by an eye-watering £1,200 a year.
Following hot on the heels of 12-years of Government austerity that has weakened public services – including removing over £250m funding from Durham County Council.
Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Member for Communities & Inclusion, Cllr Angela Surtees, added:
“If Durham County Council remains silent and the Government continues to ignore this issue, people face the hardest squeeze on household budgets in generations. A potential catastrophe for working people and families in County Durham and across the North East.
“This council must recognise that the people of County Durham are heading for genuine crisis, with many struggling families already abandoned to the brutal choice of ‘heating or eating’. This, in the 21 Century, in the fifth richest country on the planet, is not acceptable – Labour will not stand for it, we expect the same from this Coalition.”
Cllr Crute added: “This is a crisis made in Downing Street, which writes off billions of pounds worth of furlough fraud while removing £20 a week from families on UC…and increasing taxes. Only Downing Street can mitigate the impact of this crisis on working people.
We’ve offered a plan to navigate a way out of this crisis, the rest is up to Coalition councillors to support this motion and call on the Government to finally get its act together, put its self-inflicted crises and chaos to one side and focus on delivering a decent standard of living for working people and their families.”