Skip to content
Search
AI Powered
Latest Stories

'Households’ spending power to be slashed by £3,000'

'Households’ spending power to be slashed by £3,000'
Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images
AFP via Getty Images

Households will see their spending power cut by an average of £3,000 by the end of next year unless the new government acts to counter the biggest drop in living standards in at least a century, research has indicated.

Adding to Resolution Foundation thinktank said soaring energy bills would cut household incomes by 10 per cent and push an extra three million people into poverty.


The thinktank said the outlook for living standards was “shocking” and “terrifying”, noting that without beefed-up support from the state, the drop in the typical household’s income would be twice as severe as that in the global financial crisis of the late 2000s and worse than the eight per cent drop that followed the oil price shock of the mid-1970s.

With prices rising faster than wages, the Resolution Foundation said inflation-adjusted average incomes would continue falling until at least the middle of next year – taking real earnings back to their levels of 2003. Living standards were on course to drop by five per cent in the current 2022-23 financial year and by a further six percent in 2023-24 – a two-year decline unprecedented even during the hardship suffered during the second world war.

Inflation is currently at a 40-year high of 10.1 per cent but the Bank of England expects it to rise to 13 per cent in October. The Resolution Foundation said that these estimates already include the government’s existing £30 billion package of support announced in March.

Resolution Foundation researcher Lalitha Try said that no responsible government could accept such an outlook, so radical policy action is required to address it.

“We are going to need an energy support package worth ten of billions of pounds, coupled with increasing benefits next year by October’s inflation rate,” The Guardian quoted Try as saying.

"The new prime minister also needs to improve Britain's longer-term outlook, which can only be achieved by a new economic strategy that delivers higher productivity and strong growth," Try added.

More for you

Trade union calls for 'respect, decent break' for retail staff

iStock image

Trade union calls for 'respect, decent break' for retail staff

Retail trade union Usdaw today (23) called on the shopping public to show respect for shop workers, stating that the busy pre-Christmas shopping period leaves retail workers exhausted and in need of a proper break.

Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says, “By the time retail workers get to Christmas Eve, they will have been through a very busy run-up to Christmas. Our members tell us that incidents of verbal abuse are much worse in December and through to the New Year, when shops are busy, customers are stressed and things can boil over.

Keep ReadingShow less
iStock 1458055720
iStock image
iStock image

'Retailers must focus on prices as convenience channel poised to expand'

Grocers must focus on their price positioning to remain competitive as food and grocery spending in UK convenience stores is projected to outpace the hypermarkets, supermarkets, and discounters channel.

According to GlobalData, food and grocery spending in convenience stores is projected to reach £43.2 billion by 2028, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.0 per cent between 2024 and 2028.

Keep ReadingShow less
iStock 1137402716
iStock image
iStock image

‘Grocery tax’ to add £56 to food bills

The upcoming “grocery tax” could hit hard-pressed Britons in the pocket, adding up to £56 annually to household shopping bills and costing families as much as £1.4 billion a year, state reports on Sunday (22) citing a recent analysis.

The scheme, known as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), imposes a levy on retailers and manufacturers for the cost of collecting and disposing of packaging waste, currently funded via council tax.

Keep ReadingShow less
SPAR teams up with Preston primary school to spread festive cheer

SPAR teams up with Preston primary school to spread festive cheer

Ashton Primary School in Preston has teamed up with SPAR during the season of goodwill to donate delicious food to the city’s Foxton Centre.

The school’s Year 3 class enjoyed a cookery session baking pear and chocolate crumbles to take down to the Foxton Homeless Day Centre as a pre-Christmas treat for people who access its services.

Keep ReadingShow less
Cadbury removed from royal warrant list after 170 years

(Photo credit should read Leon Neal/AFP via Getty Images)

Cadbury removed from royal warrant list after 170 years

Cadbury’s has not been granted a royal warrant for the first time in 170 years after it got dropped from King Charles’s list of warrants.

Queen Victoria first awarded Cadbury with the title in 1854 which was then repeated by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1955 who was a huge lover of the chocolate.

Keep ReadingShow less