Essex mum on coping with cost of living crisis in winter: "I'll have to buy the kids thermal pyjamas"

People in Essex will find out later how the Government's going to help them ride-out the cost-of-living crisis as the Chancellor gets ready to deliver a mini-budget later.

Sarah, a mum of two from Chelmsford, tells us she's expecting rising energy costs to hit hard during winter: "It's going to cost a fortune...

"I think it will get to the point where we'll go back to using our electric blankets in the beds. I'll just heat the living room with a halogen heater so I'm not heating the whole house and then when we go up to bed, they'll be warm for us to get in and that will save me money on heating the house...

"I'm really worried. I'll have to get onesies and thermal pyjamas for the kids because I'm not going to be able to afford to heat the house, we'll heat the room we're in, have blankets on the sofa and to wear thermals that keep the kids warm through the night."

She says she's in a tough position, because heat, energy and electricity aren't things she, or most people, can go without: "We can't turn everything off.

"I've got children, I need to wash their clothes, they've got to have baths or showers and I have to cook... We also still need to heat the house and we need light - the alternative is a candle, which is a total fire hazard...

"We can't go back to the dark ages. We're in 2022 - this shouldn't even be happening."

Meanwhile, Essex County Council's offering help and advice to households on the little things people can do to reduce bills - we've been speaking to Council leader Kevin Bentley: "We want to make sure we're helping people just like Sarah, so we have to make sure that the information we are providing reaches her.

"There are simple things for all of us that we can do to help with energy costs for example - and I'm guilty of this too – leaving lots of appliances on standby. OK, it's not huge amounts of money, but it's using energy and it's using money as well that doesn't need to be spent.

"If I just switch off the television rather than having that on standby, the money that would save over a period of time would be, I think, quite substantial.

"I think people just need to think about how they use their energy and whether you need to keep the lights on all the time - do you need to switch them on?...

"Essex County Council have produced literature about how you can save money within your own house as well, and the advice applies to businesses too. I run a business as well as being the leader of the County Council, along with my wife and we're looking at how we can conserve energy.

"What this is doing is maybe starting to get us to think a bit harder. There's the price element and an energy element and actually it’s helping to save the planet by using less resources, so it's a double edged sword.

It's a shame that the cost of living is driving us to do this, but it does make us think a bit harder about our energy usage and we can all play a part in that, some more than others.

"It's important, though, that those who need energy should be able to have it as affordable as they possibly can. That's why I think the cap will help, as will the £400 that households are being given, but there's also a part of us that can help ourselves."

The Chancellor

Ahead of his mini-budget today, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced he'll be reversing the national insurance hike introduced by Boris Johnson's government.

Mr Kwarteng confirmed that he was cancelling the 1.25% increase imposed by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor to pay for social care and dealing with the NHS backlog.

Mr Kwarteng said he would also be scrapping the planned Health and Social Care Levy which was due to come into effect next April to replace the national insurance rise.

The Government tabled legislation in the Commons on Thursday to enact the tax changes.

Mr Kwarteng said: "Taxing our way to prosperity has never worked. To raise living standards for all, we need to be unapologetic about growing our economy.

"Cutting tax is crucial to this - and whether businesses reinvest freed-up cash into new machinery, lower prices on shop floors or increased staff wages, the reversal of the levy will help them grow, whilst also allowing the British public to keep more of what they earn."

The Treasury said most employees will receive a cut to their national insurance contribution directly via their employer's payroll in their November pay, although some may be delayed to December or January.

The levy was expected to raise around £13 billion a year to fund social care and deal with the NHS backlog which has built up due to the Covid pandemic.

However Mr Kwarteng said funding for health and social care services will be maintained at the same level as if it was still in place.

The Chancellor and Prime Minister Liz Truss have argued that the lost revenues will be recovered through higher economic growth stimulated by the cuts in taxation.

But with Mr Kwarteng also preparing to scrap a planned rise in corporation tax, some economists have warned about the sharp rise in Government borrowing.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the plan to drive growth was "a gamble at best" and that ministers risked putting the public finances on an "unsustainable path".