How Greater Manchester organisations want new PM Liz Truss and Government to tackle cost of living crisis

Liz Truss becomes prime minister at a time when the UK is gripped by the cost of living crisis.

The new PM and the government she appoints will face widespread alarm over what the coming months hold, with energy bills set to soar from October and the cost of everyday necessities going up.

Organisations in Greater Manchester which work to tackle poverty and represent the city-region’s small businesses have had their say on what they think Ms Truss’ top priority needs to be for her first days in office.

‘We need substantial support for households’

Greater Manchester Poverty Action (GMPA) is a not-for-profit organisation which seeks to reduce levels of hardship across the city-region and it said its priority was simply to get money in people’s pockets.

Its CEO Graham Whitham said: “We need substantial support for all households which is a lot more than what was announced earlier this year.

“The government needs to immediately put money in people’s pockets and then we need a long-term plan for tackling poverty in this country.

“We have a cost of living crisis now but we have had a poverty crisis for years.

“The main thing is people need direct help with their energy bills in a way that basically covers off the huge increases people are going to see over the coming months.

“We also need to see additional support for low-income households. We know the benefits system isn’t anywhere near generous enough and there are too many people in low income jobs.

“Government needs to act so people are not falling into debt because they can’t buy food because the costs are too high.”

‘The government needs to act sooner rather than later’

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said there is plenty the new government serving under Ms Truss can do to help the country’s entrepreneurs and independent firms get through the months to come.

The FSB development manager for Greater Manchester, Robert Downes, said:”The government needs to act sooner rather than later. The UK’s small businesses shrank by around 400,000 at the start of the pandemic in 2020 and it’s not going to be a surprise if we see similar numbers going to the wall again if there isn’t significant governmment intervention in the current crisis.

“There are four things we think the government needs to concentrate on. We need a reversal of the National Insurance increase. That has been pledged and we need to see it as we’ve been calling for it for quite some time.

“There needs to be a cut in VAT. At the very least it should be reduced on energy to alleviate some of the impact of price rises. It would deliver a reduction in cost for businesses and provide a real boost for consumer spending.

“A crash is what a lot of our members are really fearful of, with people cutting back on all non-essentials.

“We need a business rates reduction. We have 100% rate relief in England on premises with a rateable value of £12,000, and we think that threshold should be increased to £25,000. That would lift out around 200,000 businesses, many of them small High Street business in levelling-up areas which are already on their knees following the pandemic.

“We also want help with energy bills for small businesses with premises to match that being given to private households. Businesses are facing even steeper price rises and we’ve had businesses facing phenomenal increases of 300% and 400%.

“The government has got to get a handle on this. Without massive intervention the resulting situation is going to be bad for the economy, bad for future economic recovery, bad for jobs and bad for communities, because local businesses are at the heart of communities.”

What has Liz Truss said so far about the cost of living crisis?

Speaking on Monday (5 September) after winning the Conservative leadership election Ms Truss said she would work on tackling the cost of energy crisis. She mentioned reducing people’s energy bills and dealing with long-term issues around energy supply she said the UK faces.