Parliamentary recess is the perfect time to catch up with constituents, organisations, and businesses in my constituency. The overwhelming concern of those I’ve met in the past week is energy prices – and the inaction of the UK Government to tackle them.
Constituents in Glasgow Central are already incredibly worried about the increase in their bills, never mind those coming when the price cap goes up in a few weeks’ time. Some have already seen their bills double, at a time when incomes have not kept pace.
The support pledged by the UK Government, while welcome, will hardly touch the sides of the increase in people’s bills, especially when figures predict 72.8 per cent of Scottish households could be plunged into fuel poverty by next January. The energy price cap, limited as it is, only applies to domestic bills. This has serious implications for the economy.
The Federation of Small Businesses and British Chamber of Commerce have been highlighting this from much earlier in the year – as prices soar for businesses, it’s almost inevitable these are passed on to consumers and come at a cost to staffing. As businesses come to the end of fixed-term energy contracts, the choices become stark. An increasing number of businesses have taken the difficult decision to shut their doors in the face of soaring bills, making their staff unemployed.
It’s the last thing the economy needs as we recover from Covid. For charitable and voluntary organisations, the outlook is similarly bleak – we all expect them to be on the frontline of supporting those in need but their bills are also soaring.
A representative of a church contacted me earlier this year to warn about this, yet the UK Government couldn’t have been less interested in providing support. The halls and public buildings which are at the heart of our communities aren’t able to increase their funds to meet the bills which are coming.
It is maddening to see UK Government ministers failing to take action on this crisis – from the Prime Minister off on multiple holidays, to those empty jacket ministers taking a salary while waiting for the next PM to come along and tell them what to do.
The SNP Scottish Government is using its limited powers to increase the Scottish Child Payment, carrying out an emergency budget review to identify any further opportunities to redirect additional resources to those most in need, and is looking at what options are available to devolved governments to help mitigate costs for households and businesses.
The UK Government needs to act now – by scrapping the rise in the energy price cap, doubling the energy grant to £800 and bringing forward payments, and introducing an energy price cap for small and medium enterprises. As my SNP colleagues and I have been calling for, UK Government ministers should also use the economic powers at their disposal to bring in a wider windfall tax to include all large businesses which made significant profits during the pandemic.
There is much which can be done to support people, organisations and businesses through this crisis – the UK Government must stop ducking its responsibility.
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