The UK’s Slow-Motion Crisis Demands a Rapid-Response Budget

Stagnant wages, rising prices and cuts to services – no wonder there’s a widespread sense that everything is getting worse. Will tomorrow’s Budget grapple with the scale of the problem? Unlikely.

The British public are feeling more pessimistic than they have since Brexit. Will Andy Burnham (left) and Chancellor John Healey lift the mood? Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

As John Healey prepares his first budget as chancellor, consumer confidence has plunged to its lowest levels since the UK voted to leave the European Union. The GfK confidence tracker fell to minus 24 points this month, 11 points lower than in September, suggesting that consumers are feeling very pessimistic indeed about their personal financial situation and the overall state of the economy. One of the directors of the survey commented that the fall was “alarming” and was being driven by “relentless cost-of-living pressures”.

When Andy Burnham first became prime minister, promising to end neoliberalism and protect people from the cost-of-living crisis, consumer confidence briefly increased. But it began to ebb away again once people realised how limited his ambitions truly were. One of his first cost-of-living interventions was a ban on subscription traps, saving the average consumer £170 per year – a measly amount when you consider that the average household is £2,400 worse off purely as a result of the Iran war.