Cost of living crisis is 'bigger emergency' than coronavirus, says Caithness councillor
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THE cost of living crisis is "a bigger emergency" than the Covid pandemic, according to Caithness councillor Raymond Bremner.
Mr Bremner, the Highland Council leader, made the comment when responding to the UK Government's plans to help the public and businesses as they face soaring energy bills and high inflation.
He said: "I welcome any support for people and businesses struggling to pay their bills. We are facing the biggest cost of living crisis in decades. The details are yet to emerge, but what’s on the table will still leave families and businesses with huge increases in their costs over the coming weeks and months and our young people and future generations will be paying the cost of this for many years to come.
"This is a bigger emergency than even the pandemic, with an immense risk to lives and livelihoods."
Mr Bremner added:"This is also a cost crisis for local authorities. We are facing the same pressures in the cost of energy, pay, construction, transport, goods and services. We are already doing many things to help communities with the cost of living crisis, within the powers we have. We will also be bringing a paper to Council on 22 September on the cost crisis.
"This will set out our responsibilities as a Council, how we plan to address the current situation, and what we can potentially and practically do right now to provide support to communities, as well as signposting further work to understand how we can best direct our resources, which will come to committee in October."
Meanwhile, the local authority is developing a new webpage which will set out all the help, support and advice for the cost of living crisis.
Under the UK Government's plans average household energy bills will be capped at £2,500 a year from next month.
The support will last for two years.
It means an annual bill will not rise above £2500 from October. Without that assistance, the bill would be £3549. Last winter it was £1277 a year. Businesses will get support, too, with bills capped for six months.
