Labour is calling for Peterborough City Council to set out a Winter Cost-of-Living plan to help thousands of families facing hardship over the coming months as bills and prices rise.

Local Labour Leaders have asked the city council to use its powers to directly help families affected and to bring together other partners in the city on a cross-party basis to help the city get through the current crisis.

Rising energy bills, inflation and ongoing inaction by the government mean that Peterborough is going to be hard hit over the winter months with many people already cutting back on food due to price rises. There are real concerns about pensioners and struggling families being forced to choose between hearing and eating.

Special funds allocated to help families with the crisis have already been spent by the council as demand outstrips funds.

Labour is calling for:

1. Peterborough City Council to set out an Emergency Winter Action Plan
2. The establishment of a cross-party group of councillors to work with officers and other partners to deliver city-wide help
3. Peterborough to follow the example of other cities like Bristol and Milton Keynes by promoting warm spaces over the winter. These could be community centres or other public public buildings where people are welcome to come to if they don’t want to use their heating at home.
4. These warm spaces should also have information and advisors on hand to make sure people are getting the maximum help they are titled to.
5. To encourage other businesses and facilities to become warm spaces.
6. Lobby the government for additional support to help vulnerable families and pensioners
7. Bring forward plans to help people make their homes energy efficient and to reduce wasted energy

Even before the cost-of-living crisis hit, 14.9% of households in Peterborough were classified by the government as being in fuel poverty. Those figures will now be much worse with the energy cost due to rise to £3,549 in October.

Nearly half of universal credit claimants in Peterborough were are in work. Whilst more than a third of children in Peterborough live in households on less than 60% of the median wage after housing costs.

Britain faces the “terrifying” prospect of the biggest squeeze in living standards for a century, a leading think tank has warned, with all wage growth since 2002 being wiped out.

The Resolution Foundation said that people would see a 10 per cent fall in mean disposable income over this year and next — equivalent to £3,000 for the typical household.

Andrew Pakes, Labour & Co-operative Parliamentary Candidate for Peterborough said:

“Families across the city are already struggling to make ends meet and that is before the colder winter months arrive. This is the worst cost of living crisis in a generation and we need urgent help to weather this coming financial storm.”

Councillor Dennis Jones added:

“It is scarcely believable that most, if not every, major city is looking to create places of warmth and safety for the most vulnerable in our society.

“Every effort needs to be made to ensure that people are safe and warm in their own homes. We have a new PM, and this must surely be their first, and most pressing, challenge to address the financial crisis that faces most people in Peterborough.”