Cost of living for UK’s poorest could be 10% higher by autumn, thinktank warns

Volunteers pack food parcels in Edinburgh. The poorest tenth of households are spending twice as much of their budget on food and fuel as the richest. Photograph: Peter Summers/Getty Images

The poorest households in the UK could see their cost of living jump by as much as 10% by this autumn if Russia’s invasion of Ukraine leads to a prolonged conflict, a thinktank has warned, as Rishi Sunak faces mounting pressure to tackle the cost of living crisis.

The chancellor will deliver his spring statement on 23 March. He is reluctant to commit to significant extra spending, but Treasury sources concede he has acknowledged the necessity to take some limited action.