Residents in one of the more deprived areas in Bristol, have been struggling through winter as the unprecedented cost of living increases bite deep into household income. We spoke to business owners in Filton Road who are witnessing the impact of the cost of living crisis on their customers.
Nisa shop manager, Ankur Patel said his customers were doing everything they could to get through the long winter months, but that costs continued to increase putting an enormous strain on families. He said: “We have been trying to keep prices level, our customers are struggling, saying to us that prices go up and up.
“Everything continues to increase, including our own business costs. We are hoping that things get better in the year ahead,” he said.
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Down the street another business owner standing in the doorway of his repair shop, Habib Mhamdi, said: “The economy is down and that will affect all businesses, there’s nothing you can do about it. We had the pandemic for three years and then we had Ukraine, which all pushed up prices.
A couple of shops further along and business owner Harpreet Sehmbi is helping to unload goods for his shop from a delivery truck. He said: “It’s terrible. Before all these increases we were just surviving, now we have to start putting money from our own pocket. Our costs have gone up and people are spending less as they have to pay their bills.”
Maria Gannon, who runs a hairdressing salon, said that while the Christmas period was “the quietest I’ve ever had”, business has picked up in January. She said: “A lot of people talk about the increases in the cost of living and have had to tighten their belts since Covid."
Another business owner, who did not want to be named, said: “Most of my clients don’t have money, it has been quiet. It is the cost of living, I have less clients than before.”
During this winter, Bristol City Council organised over 80 communal ‘Welcome Spaces’ to help with the sharp cost of living increases as residents battled to keep warm with the rocketing energy prices. Described as a “lifeline to families across Bristol”, Eastville Ward councillor Marley Bennett requested the warm spaces be continued permanently.
For struggling households, the new DWP 2023 Cost of Living payment totalling £900 is expected to be paid over three instalments. Money saving expert Martin Lewis said this week that the first payment of £301 can be expected around April 6, after the tax year, while a second payment of £301 should be paid around October/November and the third payment of £299 should be made in the spring of 2024.
Apart from the £900 Cost of Living Payment, there are also other cost of living payments to help residents to make it through the cold months, including : The Cold Weather Payment Scheme; The Energy Discount Payment and the Warm Home Discount Scheme.
Meanwhile Reuters reported that top energy firms, BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell and TotalEnergies were expected to make a combined record profit of close to $200 billion for 2022. Profits for energy companies are set to continue this year with a forecast $158 billion in profit which, while it is a decline on 2022 profits, will ensure good shareholder returns.
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