Liverpool food campaigner is ‘shocked’ and ‘frustrated’ at the ‘stigmatising’ Autumn budget
Jeremy Hunt’s long awaited Autumn Statement to "rebuild" the economy could leave many Merseyside families worse off
A Liverpool based food campaigner says she's worried that the rising taxes and bills outlined yesterday will hit the lowest paid people in Merseyside.
It comes as Jeremy Hunt’s long awaited Autumn Statement came out yesterday with a plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and "rebuild" the economy.
It means thousands more people across Merseyside face paying more in tax and energy bills.
The Chancellor has announced the cap on gas and electricity prices will rise by £500 in April, taking the typical household's energy bill to £3,000.
Lucy Antal is senior project manager from Feed Back Global, she specialises in food injustice.
Lucy said: “I’m a bit worried about the fact that there's nothing being done to address the problems we have and will only see increasing as we get into the winter months.
“As it gets colder, people need to spend more money on heating so will start cutting back on other things, like food.”
The Chancellor also said he will invest an extra £280 million in The Department for Work and Pensions to "crackdown" on benefit fraud over the next two years.
Lucy questions the need for such a huge financial focus in this area.
She said: “I can think of a lot of ways that money can be spent better in things like supporting free school meals. Actually helping people out in this period now between November and April when these benefits might come in.
“Generally I am really fed up at the fact that he is always stigmatising the least well paid and the people most struggling in our society.
“Where's the money going on tax fraud that seems to be dominating everything?”
With inflation hitting UK inflation jumped to a 41-year high of 11.1% this week, Lucy wonders how the increasing taxes will help those struggling now.
Lucy said: “The Rowntree Foundation has gone back and looked at wages, looked at the availability of food and how that works out.
“They reckon that we’ve got more people in work, living in poverty, than since records began. So we are going back quite a few years, and this is the worst it's ever been.”
Lucy added the government can seem out of touch and maybe don’t understand things like how the area you live in can make things difficult.
She said: “From an access point of view you know there might not be the shops.
“Some parts of Merseyside it’s easier to put a bet on a horse than buy an apple.
“So, we are seeing more and more people who are in work, are going to the pantries, are going to the foodbanks, which is a difficult thing.”
The Chancellor also announced the National Living Wage is going up, schools will get an extra £2.3bn a year and that social rents will be capped.
Though Lucy agrees some of the proposals are good she feels the long time frames and the way the MP spins them could be misleading.
She said: “This idea of capping private rent, so it doesn’t raise above 7%, despite what Mr Hunt would like to think, that’s not actually a saving any more than if I go shopping in a sale and buy shoes at a discounted price is in fact a saving, I’m still spending money.”
Lucy agreed with the Chancellors decision to hit the energy industry with an expanded windfall tax of 35% up from 25%.
She said it could have been done sooner as: "A windfall tax makes too much sense."
With a focus on climate change in the statement, Jeremy Hunt also said the Government is staying committed to their target of reaching a 68% reduction in emissions by 2030.
However, some have said the Autumn Budget is not reassuring when it comes to how this target will be met.
Feed Back Global have a focus on climate including the ‘Bad Energy’ campaign which looks for greener alternatives than converting farm and food waste into energy through Anaerobic Digestion.
In a battle to fight climate change the Liverpool Food Back team have a recently revamped Queen of Greens community fruit and vegetable bus.
The Queen of Greens bus tours nearly 30 places across Liverpool and Knowsley, five days a week, offering affordable fresh fruit and vegetables to the community.
Lucy says politically, more focus on food could help people across Merseyside and Liverpool.
She said “It always surprises me that in local authorities and also national authorities, there is no portfolio for food. There is no person in charge of food for the city and there should be.
“There needs to be someone with an overview of what goes on regarding food in the city. So that's procurement, schools, all of that sort of thing, because otherwise it ends up fragmented and nobody works together to make sure it's all joined up.”