LONDON (Dispatches) – The energy crisis and spiraling inflation have taken a heavy toll on the European people, especially the UK citizens, with some saying that the skyrocketing prices and worsening cost-of-living crisis are somehow impossible to contend with.
Energy prices have soared across Europe since fall 2021, driven in part by the Russia-Ukraine war and the pandemic. In this regard, the UK energy prices rose more dramatically than France and Italy.
Germany is regulating the temperature in workplaces down to 19 degrees Celsius (66 F). France has set up an energy-shortage warning system which would alert residents and businesses to turn down the heat in their buildings to 18 C (64.4F). In Britain, London’s fire chiefs felt it necessary to warn residents against having open fires at home.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in October, British households paid 88.9 percent more on average for electricity, gas and other fuels than a year ago. Domestic gas prices in October, in particular, were more than double than a year earlier.
In a complaining twitter post, a UK citizen said that his electricity bill is more than his rent.
“I am in shock. I have just had my electricity bill for the past month. My rent is £600 a month. The electricity bill for the past month is £761,” Brynin said.
According to the latest UK Economic Outlook, published by KPMG, the UK economy will shrink by 1.3 percent in 2023, amid continued inflation and higher interest rates. Also the rate of unemployment could reach 5.6 percent by mid-2023, up from 3.7 percent, representing an increase of around 680,000 people.
The average annual energy bill surged 96 percent from last autumn to £2,500 (roughly $3,000), with the UK government intervening to cap the unit cost of gas and electricity bills at that level until April 2023.
Rising energy prices, along with soaring energy costs, have largely contributed to the UK cost-of-living crisis.
“Some families across the UK in the current cold Christmas have to juggle household incomes between staying warm or buying food,” said Keith Baker, a research fellow in fuel poverty and energy policy at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland.
“We’ve now got to the point where charities are trying to get out warm clothing to people,” Baker added.
The developments come as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced criticism on Saturday for seeming out of touch with ordinary people when he asked a homeless man at a charity whether he “worked in business” and wanted to get into the finance industry.
Sunak, a former Goldman Sachs banker and one of Britain’s wealthiest people, was serving breakfast at a homeless shelter in London on Friday, when he began chatting with a man who identified himself as Dean.
“Do you work in business?” the prime minister asks the man at one point during the conversation, as he hands him a plate of sausages, toast and eggs.
“No, I’m homeless. I’m actually a homeless person,” the man replies.
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, posted a clip of the exchange on Twitter, calling it “excruciating,” while another Labour lawmaker, Bill Esterson, called Sunak “out of touch”.
His ascent to the British premiership in October made Sunak the richest occupant of Number 10 Downing Street at a time when the country is struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
The prime minister this week made surprise phone calls to British diplomats and military personnel around the world to give them Christmas wishes, his office said on Friday.
His awkward exchange with the homeless man began when the man asks Sunak if he’s “sorting the economy out”.
When the homeless man then says he is interested in business and finance, Sunak replies that he used to work in finance too, before asking: “Is that something you would like to get into?”
“Yeah I wouldn’t mind,” says Dean. “But, I don’t know, I’d like to get through Christmas first.”