{"id":51803,"date":"2022-12-16T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T09:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=51803"},"modified":"2022-12-16T00:20:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T00:20:26","slug":"how-inflation-energy-and-wages-are-devastating-young-londoners-ahead-of-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/how-inflation-energy-and-wages-are-devastating-young-londoners-ahead-of-the-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"How inflation, energy and wages are devastating young Londoners ahead of the holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many young people have lost confidence in the current UK government, and the demand for an immediate general election is echoing well into the holiday season.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raging inflation rates mixed with constant industrial action leaves the nation questioning the Conservative Party\u2019s competency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PM Rishi Sunak, although still relatively new to the job, has not delivered the approval turn-around that the party was expecting. This has left many thinking that there will be a nation-wide Labour sweep<\/a> in the next general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A YouGov survey shows<\/a> that 47% of voters intend to support Labour, more than double the Conservative support level of 22%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Credit: YouGov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Abbiey Curl, a 24-year-old student, said: \u201cGiven the ongoing chaos and controversies of the Conservative party over the last year, I believe the public confidence in the current government has decreased to a point where the public demand drastic change.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industrial action this week<\/a> includes the unprecedented RCN nursing, National Rail, and Royal Mail strikes, which will cause major disruptions to all aspects of life leading up to the coming holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All eyes are turning to Rishi Sunak to find pay-related compromise to end the disruption, yet the government maintains<\/a> that pay rises demanded by unions are impossible. Even if the crisis were to be resolved, the damage done to the PM\u2019s credibility may be irreversible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dEven if it [strike resolution] is done, I don\u2019t trust the government,\u201d Isabella Sawyer, 21, said. \u201cThey\u2019re all in it for each other, not for the people. I just don\u2019t trust them to do the best thing for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Credit: YouGov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People across the nation overwhelmingly view economic troubles as the biggest problem for the country. According to newly updated YouGov data, 67% of survey takers felt the economy was the most important issue for England, followed by health (49%), immigration\/asylum (32%) and the environment (25%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s going on with the economy?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The Bank of England is expected to raise its lending rate<\/a> to 3.5% from 3.0% tomorrow, continuing to stretch the wallets of Britons. The central bank\u2019s official inflation target for the year was 2%, and the drastic off-target levels have continued to impact the whole nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremy Hunt, Sunak\u2019s chancellor, is celebrating the small victories by praising the market control of fuel prices in the country, but still maintains that \u201cgetting inflation down is a top priority\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the government and the Bank of England have stated that they expect the current recession to continue well into next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/ewanmcg\/status\/1601634256681603074?s=20&t=Cc9SCWaLEaNN1r31XSls1Q\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Young residents have felt the recession especially hard, with many students and part-time workers not fitting the criteria for government aid. Energy prices, along with record-high inflation, have left people pinching pennies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cContinuing to support myself on the same pay rate has been extremely difficult when the cost of living has increased so dramatically. It\u2019s hard enough to support myself on the day-to-day, leaving me with very little to no disposable income to spend on the upcoming holidays,\u201d Curl said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To heat or to eat? <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

According to the Energy Saving Trust<\/a>, the average price of electricity is 34p per kilowatt hour, up from 2021\u2019s average of 18p\/kWh. Of course, the more electricity used, the higher the bill, leaving many households cutting back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curl\u2019s flat is yet another home having to make the decision between heating and eating. \u201cWe are in agreement that we do not want to have to pay the extreme bills [for heating]. It\u2019s increasingly hard to live and function in a flat that sits around 8 degrees at night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCountries around us, including Wales, have added caps and freezes on energy prices to ensure their residents don\u2019t suffer from the energy companies\u2019 greed,\u201d Curl stated. \u201cHowever, the English government have made no such effort despite reports of the top 7 energy companies making \u00a3<\/strong>150bn profit so far this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, the UK government has implemented an energy price cap <\/a>of \u00a3<\/strong>3000 per year, but the measure has not been strong enough to assist enough amid other rising prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Credit: YouGov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bringing energy companies back into public ownership is highly supported<\/a>, with 66% of survey participants either strongly or tending to support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 2022 quickly coming to a close, the economic turmoil facing the UK is truly a nightmare before Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words: Cerah Handsaker | Subbing: Yana Trup<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many young people have lost confidence in the current UK government, and the demand for an immediate general election is echoing well into the holiday season. Raging inflation rates mixed with constant industrial action leaves…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":49637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51803"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52254,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51803\/revisions\/52254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}