Amid projections of higher inflation and a recession that could last more than a year, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has made one thing clear: whoever wins the Conservative leadership election will have to provide more support for households.
And, as Paul Johnson, director of the respected think-tank points out, that package may not be a small one. Energy prices are set to be far higher than we thought even a few months ago, as dual fuel bills approach £4,000 next year.
At the same time, inflation means the Government will face huge pressure to provide more money for our public services and public-sector pay.
Greater support to prevent collapsing living standards will also be a growing political imperative. With a general election at most two-and-a-half years away and a long recession forecast, the next Prime Minister will not want to go to the country with a record of falling incomes and a shrinking economy.
Water is so precious
It’s dry. Walk through the local park and you’re likely to see straw and dust where grass used to grow. Yes, it is August, but this is not a typical London summer.
The Environment Agency reports that England has had just 10 per cent of its long-term average rainfall for July, with the East and South-East recording four per cent. A hosepipe ban for the capital is not yet in place, but by next week Hampshire, Sussex and Kent will all face one.
Water companies have advised residents to report on their neighbours should they break the rules. The utilities should first look at themselves. Even putting to one side the expulsion of effluence into our rivers, the sheer amount of water lost to leaks boggles the mind. Only yesterday, a street was flooded in Kilburn, north London, as a result of a burst water main.
There are solutions to our water crisis. Both using (and wasting) less but also finding new sources. But Thames Water’s desalination plant at Beckton, east London, which was built to deliver up to 100 million litres of water a day in dry weather events, is currently out of service.
At the same time, in what sounds like a dystopian development, the source of the River Thames has shifted five miles east as the riverbed which marks the official start has run dry.
As our climate changes, extreme weather conditions such as drought will be more common. We must conserve what we have and find new, sustainable sources of water.
A new season begins
Welcome back to the Premier League. We can hardly complain of a summer without football after the Lionesses produced one of the greatest moments in our country’s sporting history.
And though Crystal Palace v Arsenal at Selhurst Park tonight may not be England v Germany at Wembley, what better way to start the season than a London derby?
Can Mikel Arteta’s men take that next step? Will the title race be just another Liverpool-Man City two-horse race? And what will the impact be of the small matter of a men’s World Cup halfway through the season? There’s only one way to find out.
