Cost of living crunch is a big hit for families to take – but we have to fix the NHS and backlogs, says Rishi Sunak
ENERGY bills will be going up and I know how anxious families across the country will be feeling about this news.
Firstly, let’s look at why this is happening.
There are a few factors causing energy prices to rise so dramatically, and unfortunately they are mostly out of the Government’s control.
One is the steep rise in demand for gas in places such as China, which has pushed up global prices.
Another is the fact that last year across Europe and Asia we had a long cold winter so stores of gas have been lower than usual.
All this means that, on average, people will be seeing their energy bills rise by £693.
There are no two ways about it: That is a big hit for people to take and I don’t underestimate it one bit.
That is why, to cushion the blow, I have taken some steps that will provide families with £350, which will cover more than half the cost of the rise.
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People will get that £350 in two different ways.
Four out of five households will get £150 in April as a discount to their council tax bills — so cash is there in your bank account straight away to help with the rise in cost.
Then, in the autumn, everyone will get £200 off their energy bills that will be repayable over the course of five years.
We have done it in this way to ensure that help is targeted at those who need it most, while also providing some support for those in the squeezed middle — the local schoolteacher, hospital nurse or police officer — who will be feeling the pinch too.
Heating help
This is also the responsible way to respond to what is a significant shock.
Throughout my time as Chancellor I have always tried to come at problems in a fair way and with the humility that I can’t always do everything for everyone.
It would be very easy for me to stand up — as the Labour Party has done time and time again — and announce unfunded packages worth tens of billions of pounds of your money without being honest about how it will be paid for or the impact it will have on our public finances.
It is not right and it is not credible.
I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I shirked tough decisions today for them only to come round again tomorrow.
Take the NHS and our social care reform, for example.
We made a difficult decision last year that in order to tackle the unacceptable backlogs caused by the pandemic, as well as to pay for vaccines and integrate our health and social care system, we would have to raise the money to do so.
We can’t borrow for wholesale reform and we were upfront about that from the beginning.
It would be very easy for me to stand up — as the Labour Party has done time and time again — and announce unfunded packages worth tens of billions of pounds of your money without being honest about how it will be paid for or the impact it will have on our public finances.
It is a long-term plan that needs long-term funding, and while we don’t want to burden people, we need to ensure they get the quality of healthcare they expect and deserve.
And that’s not just for this year, it’s for next year, the year after and beyond. And it wouldn’t be right to ditch that now.
We have made a plan and we are going to stick to it.
But that doesn’t stop us from helping where we can, with what we hope are short-term, temporary shocks, as we have done with our Energy Bill Rebate, which will help people to heat their homes now.
Sadly, I don’t have a crystal ball, so I can’t predict or control when energy prices will come down or when inflation will stop rising.
But I can help absorb the shock for people in the short term, while remaining on course to get our borrowing and debt down.
Economic recovery
We have always been the party of sound money — we will always continue to be on my watch — and that is the only kind of party I am interested in.
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Our economic recovery has been one of the strongest in Europe, but there are still challenges we face and the toll Covid has taken on the public coffers has been great.
I’m not afraid to make the tough but right decisions to ensure I — and future Chancellors after me — can respond in emergency situations and in the best interests of the country.
