Rishi Sunak may have met his pledge to halve inflation, but across the capital food banks report queues doubling. As the cost of necessities such as food, energy and rent continues to rise, people in London and around the country are going to bed hungry, cold and in cramped conditions.
That is why the Evening Standard is launching the Winter Survival Appeal, our Christmas campaign in partnership with Comic Relief, which have kicked things off with a donation of £500,000.
The statistics are truly gut-wrenching: nearly 14 million people suffering from food insecurity, including four million children, with another million sleeping on the floor or sharing a bed. And these figures don’t do justice to the stories of watered-down baby milk formula or the pensioners feeling suicidal because of spiralling debts.
Just £10 could provide a nourishing meal for a Londoner ever day for a month. If you are able, please go to comincrelief.com/wintersurvival and donate.
Grim reality for Hunt
Jeremy Hunt was at pains to point out the more than 100 growth measures and handful of tax cuts in his Autumn Statement speech. But he was understandably less keen on highlighting the two most startling statistics: that, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, economic growth has been revised down and inflation up.
Even the tax cuts — and there were some attractive ones for business when it came to full expensing while workers got 2p off national insurance — will not prevent taxation as a proportion of GDP from peaking at 37.7 per cent, a post-war record. Also left unsaid was the real terms hit to public spending, as cash values are eroded by inflation.
Inevitably, attention has turned to whether this fiscal event will be the one that moves the dial. Could it even generate the economic spark and public support that might make an early election viable? This seems a low probability, at least for now. The biggest problem the Conservatives face, one that is compounded by the sheer length of time in office, is that despite all the positive noises, living standards are still forecast to be lower in 2024-25 than they were before the pandemic. This would represent the biggest fall since records began in the Fifties. No single fiscal event is likely to alter that reality.
Branching out
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