London mayor Sadiq Khan has urged Boris Johnson’s successor to immediately introduce a “Covid-style” support package to help families facing poverty because of soaring energy bills.
The Labour mayor said the next PM – whether Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak wins the Tory leadership contest on Monday – must understand the scale of intervention needed over the cost of living crisis.
“With the spiralling cost of living already hitting those on lower incomes the hardest, it’s essential that the government take urgent action to help make ends meet,” Mr Khan told The Independent.
The mayor added: “That means immediately introducing a pandemic-style package of welfare support targeted directly at those on lower incomes to help them survive this winter, prevent inequalities growing further.”
Mr Khan is calling for targeted support for the most vulnerable – including a “lifeline tariff” to ensure the poorest receive a basic amount of free energy every day and an uplift of universal credit in line with 10.1 per cent inflation.
The senior Labour figure has also asked for the power to freeze private rents in London for the next two years, and extra funding to provide free school meals to all primary school children.
Mr Khan has warned of unnecessary deaths this winter without “big bold action” to ease the pain of annual energy bills rising over £3,500 in October, before being set to top £4,200 in January.
Ministers have continued to point to £37bn in existing funds committed to help with the cost of living, but the package includes only £15bn of direct support announced by the former chancellor in May to ease energy bills.
By comparison, Mr Sunak announced an extra £65bn of support last spring to keep Britons going through the pandemic. It took spending on the Covid crisis – including the popular furlough scheme – to over £400bn.
It comes as a major new survey shows that huge government support during the pandemic helped make sure that financial hardship did not increase in London, though some economic inequalities did grow.
The number of low-income Londoners living with food insecurity remained at 44 per cent from 2018-19 and 2021-22, according to City Hall’s survey of Londoners.
The survey, carried out earlier this year before the huge energy bill rises, also found that 13 per cent of Londoners said they were not able to keep their home warm enough in the winter of 2021-22, compared to 12 per cent in 2018-19.
Mr Khan said the two-and-a-half years since Covid hit had been “incredibly hard” for people across the UK – but support introduced by then-chancellor Sunak had helped stave off widespread hardship.
The mayor said he was “hugely concerned” that London’s existing inequalities “have been exacerbated by the pandemic”, and fears they will grow wider still without action on energy bills.
Ms Truss, the strong favourite to take power at No 10 on Tuesday, has yet to commit to any extra direct payments to help families cope with spiralling gas and electricity bills, having attacked “handouts” early in the campaign.
However, the frontrunner has since softened her stance and is understood to be considering the option of targeting the most vulnerable for further help through the benefits system.
Mr Johnson said this week that he is confident there will be “more cash to come, whoever takes over from me … substantial sums”.
Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, who has said the Treasury has prepared a suite of options for the incoming MP, said on Friday that extra support from the government will have to be extended into 2023.
