Economy: Spring Statement

Baroness Boycott Excerpts

Thursday 31st March 2022 Grand Committee

[Baroness Boycott (CB)]

My Lords, I am pleased to follow the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, and I agree with all he says. I will make some remarks about health and the environment.

We have not really even come out of this pandemic but we have indeed seen a spike in childhood obesity. We have had new data lately about the soaring amount of diabetes there is in this country and the cost to the NHS. People mention this all the time, yet when you look at the Spring Statement there is really very little in there to help people with their actual diets. There is such a big difference between eating healthy and unhealthy food. When families are unable to afford to eat well, it has a devastating impact on their health. Physically they are weakened because they rely on less nutritious food, and mentally they are stressed because they cannot provide for their families.

Reducing health inequalities is more important than ever. Childhood obesity rates have spiked and the gap between the richest and the poorest has widened. People on low incomes already had less healthy diets before this cost of living crisis, consuming on average much less fruit and veg, less oily fish and less fibre, and this current situation will widen.

Families choosing less healthy foods when times are tough do so because, when food prices rose during and after the 2008 financial crisis, people chose food that was cheaper per calorie but lower in nutritional quality, trading down the quality of their food choice in response to pressure on household spending. This was the only sensible economic choice for families facing budget pressures. Healthier foods are right now three times as expensive, calorie for calorie, as less healthy foods and the UK is once again facing significant food price rises and high levels of food insecurity.

CPI data shows that UK overall food and drinks prices have risen 5.1% in the 12 months to February 2022. In that period, sugar, jam and confectionary prices have risen by 3.5%, while vegetables have risen by 4.2% and fruit by 6.2%. Although food prices are rising at a slower rate than overall inflation, increases in other areas of household spending, such as energy bills, which we all know about, put pressure on food budgets. People cut down on food. You see this right through the chain, whether it is a school, a hospital or a prison: people squeeze the food budget, because they cannot negotiate about the other bills that they have to pay. A recent ONS survey reported that 81% of adults have seen their cost of living rise, and food was the most reported single rise.

Alongside price rises, the NFU has warned of possible vegetable shortages due to gas shortages. Farmers are already choosing to plant fewer crops this year due to unaffordable fertiliser prices; in the UK, fertiliser prices have already risen 200% in the past year, according to the NFU. The latest Food Foundation data shows that food insecurity levels are now higher than at any previous point in the pandemic; 10.8% of households—that is 5.7 million adults—experienced food insecurity in the six months to January 2022. This situation is going to deteriorate as the impacts of inflation, price rises and national insurance increases begin to be felt.

The Living Wage Foundation has found that one in five workers have had to take out a payday loan to cover the cost of essentials in the past year. That is a terrible fact. The situation is worse for those on benefits, with 40% going into debt in order to be able to eat or pay bills, according to the Trussell Trust. At Feeding Britain, which I chair, our food banks, food clubs and social supermarkets are now seeing people for the very first time who have previously lived a relatively comfortable existence. They can claw themselves out of debt on utilities and council tax only by obtaining food aid. In the 1980s, food banks became completely entrenched in the American way of life. I asked the Minister a Question in the House of Lords the other day as to how the Government saw food banks, in terms of their budgets. Do they now form part of the support structure of this country? Are the Government now committed to saying that it is okay—people will not actually starve because they can go to the food bank? I would be grateful for an answer.

There are some things that the Government could do. They could protect incomes for those from the lowest socioeconomic groups by increasing benefits levels and protecting wages. They could provide nutritional safety nets and invest in the expansion of free school meals. If they cannot do it universally, at least lower the threshold of application for it. Not everyone who claims universal credit can also get a free school meal for their kid—and, please, when can we do automatic registration for Healthy Start? The warm homes discount does this, and Healthy Start is now online; it is very easy, but a very low percentage is taking it up.

I have just heard while I have been sitting here that the Government are considering reneging on the new regulation to abolish BOGOFs—for anyone who does not know, that means “buy one, get one free”. In supermarkets, BOGOFs are always on crisps, sweets, hot dogs, buns or whatever. It is absolutely known by every marketeer that, if you buy two packets of biscuits thinking that the second will last till next week, that is rubbish—they both get eaten that week. I would be keen to hear a ministerial response as to whether that bit of news, which is flooding my email right now, is true or a rumour.

I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, that there is a worrying and scary downplaying of the seriousness of climate change, which we see through the Spring Statement and through so many Answers that we are getting to Questions in the House. We very much need the Government to lead from the front on energy efficiency. Part of this should be a public information campaign on the transition to net zero.

I will give a quick example of why this is important. Polling figures from the ECIU published this week show that only a quarter of people know that their gas boilers create nitrous oxide, one of the most potent greenhouse gases. However, once they know, nearly half of them say that this makes them much more likely to make the switch to a heat pump. So, for a relatively small amount of money, there could be a big impact. Scotland has a government-funded body, Home Energy Scotland, which provides this sort of impartial advice. Can we have something similar for England?

Nearly two years ago, the Government announced the green homes grant. It was a great idea but, by the Government’s own admission, it was poorly executed. We have heard that lessons have been learned from it, but another spending Statement has passed with no mention of its replacement. Is it now the Government’s view that they do not need to offer household assistance with insulation and energy efficient measures? Although the VAT reduction is welcome, without the other measures a large proportion of households just will not be in a position to proceed with the work.

Finally, this issue is far more pertinent now than it was when the green homes grant was initially announced. In the context of our high energy prices and the uncertainty in fossil fuel markets, the obvious answer is energy efficiency and renewables. It is in the national interest to pursue this duo, as both measures will make us much more energy secure and less vulnerable to the global market. Although it is clear that the Business Secretary and other colleagues at BEIS know this, it looks like the Chancellor and the Treasury do not. The fact that the energy security strategy has been delayed suggests that it is not a priority. If it is not a priority now, when it will have the most impact, when will it be?