Cost of Living
Debate between Andrew Selous and Caroline Flint
Caroline Flint (Don Valley) (Lab)
I beg to move an amendment. At the end of the motion add:
‘but believe that the Gracious Speech offers no answers for squeezed households facing a cost of living crisis; regret that the economy is flatlining, unemployment is rising, borrowing is set to be £245 billion more than planned and the Office of Budget Responsibility has confirmed that by 2015 people will be worse off than they were in 2010; and call on your Government to take real action to get people back into employment, build more affordable homes, tackle rising energy and water bills, tackle the growing cost of getting to work and instability in private sector housing rents and tenancies and end extortionate letting agents’ fees and charges.’.
We debate the Queen’s Speech at a time of crisis for millions of people in our country. This was a golden opportunity for the Government to show that they were in touch with the nation’s concerns and that they would help with the rising cost of living and offer hope to families who are seeing their dreams evaporating with every year that passes. But this Queen’s Speech will not take the pressure off the squeezed middle, lessen the anger of commuters powerless to halt the relentless rise of rail fares or address the choice between heating and eating for our most vulnerable senior citizens. For the shop worker whose hours have been cut, putting them with the 1.5 million people who are part-time through no choice of their own, for the middle manager workless for the first time at 50, for the design graduate offered only unpaid internships and for the parents whose child is still living with them at an age when they should have a home of their own, this Queen’s Speech has only confirmed what they dreaded: jobs and growth will have to wait and living standards will continue to fall.
While the wealthiest 1% will see their earnings rise with the Chancellor’s spring bonus, everyone else will have to settle for less. They will be expected to make ends meet, cut corners, postpone the holiday and perhaps join the 5 million families who, according to Which?, use credit or savings to pay for food. The Queen’s Speech is not just a missed opportunity, but a denial of the power of Government to change lives for the better. I believe that Government can stimulate jobs, foster growth, encourage investment and skill a work force for today’s jobs and those of tomorrow, but not if the golden rule, at every turn, is to cut the deficit first, whatever the impact, cost and evidence.
Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)
Of course, the right hon. Lady is right that the employment market is tough for many people, but in these difficult times, will she welcome the fact that there are now 750,000 more people in work than when her Government left office and that the UK’s overall employment rate is growing at twice the rate of the United States’ and is the fastest growing of any G7 country? That is not a bad record in tough times.
Caroline Flint
The Prime Minister promised change, but things have got worse, not better. He inherited an economy in which growth had returned, inflation was low, unemployment was falling and borrowing was lower than forecast. Today the economy is still flatlining, with more people out of work than when he became Prime Minister, the slowest economic recovery for more than 100 years, prices rising faster than earnings and real wages down £1,700 since 2010, while energy bills, train fares and the cost of a weekly shop have spiralled out of control.