Need to know basis
🛒 Greed and groceries. Is “greedflation” behind the soaring price of your food shop? A significant chunk of the pain we’re seeing at the supermarket could well be from retailers hoping to make bigger profits. My colleague Greg investigates. It comes as the boss of Sainsbury’s says food inflation is starting to ease (insert sigh of relief here).
🥫Accidental food bank. Here is another interesting article from Greg about how a children’s centre has found itself functioning as a food bank in an old public toilet block. More widely, it’s about how youth services are becoming the frontline services in the cost of living crisis. With schools also setting up food banks, it paints a worrying picture.
✂️ Benefits cut. According to a report in The Telegraph, ministers are considering cutting the real-terms value of benefits in August. Anti-poverty charity Z2K warns: “The social security system should not be up for debate every autumn. The absolute minimum is that it must keep up as the cost of living rises.”
💡Age and rage. More than 11 million people are struggling to afford their energy bills, according to a new report from Age UK. It is calling for the government to put in place long-term support for those on low incomes with a discounted energy deal (social tariff) to reduce bills for those that need it the most.
🧸 Put the care in childcare. Tom Pollard, from the New Economics Foundation, argues that childcare needs to focus on children’s needs rather than just allowing parents to work. It comes after changes were introduced to universal credit meaning parents are eligible for more support and will be able to seek it upfront rather than having to claim it back in arrears.
💙 Save the NHS. Poverty, housing, and the availability of green spaces all impact a population’s well-being – tackling these are the start of saving the NHS, argues Christina Pagel in this interesting article in WIRED. It is the 75th anniversary of the NHS this week – we asked leading doctors and campaigners how to fix it.
🏞️ Rural poverty. This is interesting reading from Bev Southwell in Yorkshire Bylines about how children are being affected by poverty in rural areas of the North East. It raises similar issues to this article I wrote earlier this year, about how people in rural Scotland are being disproportionately affected by the cost of living crisis.
⚖️ Prisoners released. Prisoners with mental health issues, substance abuse problems or a long distance from home will no longer be given Friday release dates, which severely limit their chances of finding a job and stable accommodation, especially in the cost of living crisis. This is expected to cut reoffending rates and reduce the pressure on prisons.
🏠 Landlords let loose. It was the National Landlord Investment Show this week and landlords from all around got together to talk about the trials they are facing in the cost of living crisis… This interview with some of them from Ed Campbell at JOE is golden, as is this from Rivkah Brown from Novara Media.
🪧 Renters retaliate. Around 100 members of London Renters Union spun a ‘wheel of misfortune’ outside the National Landlord Investment Show in protest over rent increases and evictions. Our housing reporter Liam has the lowdown.
🔑 Renters’ shares. Making money from buy-to-let properties has long been like shooting fish in a barrel for landlords, writes The Big Issue’s founder Lord John Bird. He argues it’s time renters got their share of the profits.
