PRESS RELEASE : Rishi Sunak’s first 100 days have left typical family £1,200 poorer [February 2023]
The press release issued by the Liberal Democrats on 2 February 2023.
A typical family has been left almost £1,200 poorer in the 100 days since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister.
Rishi Sunak’s first 100 days in office have been a crushing disappointment, with a worsening cost of living emergency and NHS crisis.
The cost of Conservative chaos is hitting families who are seeing their incomes squeezed while local health services are stretched to breaking point.
The new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has revealed that a typical squeezed middle household with a mortgage will have seen extra costs of £1,170 in the 100 days since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister on 25th October.
This is made up of £822 in extra mortgage interest payments, £132 in extra taxes due to the freezing of income tax thresholds and £216 in additional food bills.
This is due to get even worse in April, when under government plans the average family will see energy bills go up by £500 a year. And it comes as the Bank of England has raised interest rates for the tenth time in a row, hitting mortgage borrowers with even higher repayment costs.
The Liberal Democrats are offering a fair deal where families facing soaring mortgages and rents are offered emergency support, and where the energy price rise is cancelled. We will stand up for communities around the country being totally taken for granted by this Conservative government.
“The Conservative Party is still mired in sleaze and chaos, with no proper plan to fix the challenges facing the country. They either just don’t care or don’t get it.”
ED DAVEY
The Liberal Democrats are calling for the typical energy bill to be maintained at £2,500 this April. The Government currently regulates energy costs for households through the Energy Price Guarantee, this was initially set at £2,500 for the typical household. In the Autumn Statement the government announced this would rise in April to £3,000 for the average household. Energy bills are currently more than double the £1,277 they were last year.
The Liberal Democrats are proposing a new Mortgage Protection Fund, which would provide temporary grants to those most at risk of repossession – homeowners on the lowest incomes and those seeing the sharpest rises in mortgage rates. Anyone who sees their mortgage payments rise by more than 10% of their household income would get a grant to cover the cost of that rise for the next year, up to a maximum of £300 a month.
The Liberal Democrats are also calling on the government to urgently bring forward the promised Renters Reform Bill to Parliament. This should include an immediate ban on no-fault evictions. There should be a moratorium on evictions on grounds of rent arrears, unless arrears exceed 6 months, a measure which was in place for 6 months in 2020-21. And the mandatory notice period given by landlords should be extended from the current 2 months to 6 months, a measure which was in place for 18 months in 2020 and 2021.
