YORK people have called on new PM Liz Truss to provide urgent support for families and small businesses struggling to cope with the cost of living crisis.
They say there must be a proper strategy to protect people from the planned surge in energy prices this October – and help with the cost of living in general.
There should be a boost to wages, pension and social care payments, urgent action to tackle NHS backlogs, and support for the care sector, they say.
As soon as Ms Truss was confirmed as the new PM yesterday, The Press approached business, charity and political leaders across the city, asking them to set out what they thought her key priorities should be.
Fiona McCulloch of York Citizens Advice said the most immediate priority had to be tackling the energy crisis.
"With average family fuel bills predicted to go up to £5,000 a year and Edwina Curry suggesting that we should put tin foil behind our radiators, I think we need a better strategy than that," she said.
York council boss Keith Aspden said the new PM must ‘end the 'ridiculous political theatre' that has dominated national politics during the Conservative leadership campaign, and deliver a real plan that would help people, public service providers and businesses cope with a ‘national emergency’.
"There are people facing destitution, businesses facing closures, schools facing staff cuts - we need action on the cost of living now,” he said.
"The planned rise in energy bills this October must be cancelled and a substantial support scheme must be rolled out.
“Beyond this urgent action, Liz Truss must focus on ... action to tackle NHS backlogs, supporting those falling through the cracks of the welfare system, tackling climate change ...and providing sustainable and long-term local government funding.”
York Central MP Rachael Maskell also singled out the cost of living crisis for immediate action.
“With inflation now out of control at 10.1 per cent and rising, along with housing, energy and food costs soaring, it is essential that the new Prime Minister makes it her urgent priority to ensure that no household struggles this winter,” she said.
She also called on the new PM to ensure that wages, pensions and social security payments matched the ‘economic reality of these extraordinary times’.
The Independent Care Group (ICG), which represents care providers in York and North Yorkshire, has also written to Ms Truss, calling on her to take emergency measures to save the social care sector, which it says has been ‘battered by Covid-19, a severe staffing shortage and now the cost-of-living crisis’.
It wants the new Prime Minister to include care and nursing homes in the price cap for energy prices- and to grant people living in care settings utility bill rebates.
Charity York City of Sanctuary, meanwhile, said the PM must not forget refugees.
The charity Rebecca Russell said the sponsorship payments for local families hosting refugees under the Homes for Ukraine scheme would need to be doubled to account for the cost of living rise - otherwise some Ukrainian refugees could find themselves homeless this winter.
York Green leader Cllr Andy D’Agorne said support for families and small buisinesses to cope with the cost of living ctrisis and rising fuel bills must be the number one priority.
And in a tweet, Thirsk and Malton’s Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake agreed, saying: “So important we get support to households and SMEs according to their needs.”
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