DREW HENDRY: Budget does little to ease the pain for most of us
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The UK budget has left Highland families still grappling with high energy bills and falling living standards.
The UK Office for Budget Responsibility predicts that typical household energy bills in the UK will stay above £2000 until at least the end of winter 2025, perhaps longer.
At the same time, the Chancellor has decided to scrap the £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme, keeping the UK average yearly bill at £2500, closer to £3500 or more here.
As a result, families will have to deal with expenses that are sometimes hundreds of pounds higher than before and more than double what they paid in 2021 when the energy price cap was just £1138.
To make matters worse, the OBR warns that the UK is facing the most significant drop in living standards since records began. In this crisis, families here are likely to keep getting worse off.
Scotland is a wealthy, energy-rich country, and the Highlands more than plays its part.
I’ve met with the UK energy minister and, along with my SNP colleagues, I urged the Chancellor to cut household energy bills by £1400 to provide some respite for those struggling to cope; instead, the Chancellor chose to ditch the £400 energy rebate and keep bills high.
Shamefully, the Labour Party supported this move.
It’s not too late for the UK government to change its mind and reduce energy bills.
Energy companies are making record profits, and wholesale gas prices are going down. It is not right to force folk to pay such high energy costs.
The trouble is, the UK government aren’t listening.
Their spring budget also contains some pretty depressing forecasts.
The UK is expected to experience the biggest drop in living standards since the 1950s, with average households losing £694 a year due to Tory policies, and households will have to pay an extra £67 a month for energy bills after the Chancellor got rid of the Energy Bill Support Scheme.
Of course, Brexit continues to cause hardship and is predicted to cause a four per cent hit to UK GDP, with imports and exports likely to be 15 per cent lower than if the UK had remained in the EU.
The UK is also projected to have slower growth in 2023 than any other major economy – even sanction-hit Russia!
The SNP government is committed to helping people’s incomes through a range of progressive policies, the £25 per child per week Scottish Child Payment being just one.
