A woman (right) collects food at a community food hub in Hackney, London, on June 13, 2024. AP
London: Dominic Watters keeps a close eye on his gas and electricity meters: He topped them up a few days ago and now has just £1.85 ($2.40) left. That, he says, could determine what he and his teenage daughter have for dinner tonight.
Watters, an advocate for better access to nutritious food, is a single father from Canterbury in southern England who relies on government welfare and says microwave meals can’t compare to home-cooked meals, but he sometimes can’t afford a stove or oven.
“For single parents on welfare, life is becoming increasingly difficult,” he says. “They feel isolated. They can’t afford to buy fresh fruit and vegetables or pay the gas and electricity bills to cook.”
British Chancellor Rishi Sunak has repeatedly stressed during his campaign since announcing a general election on July 4 that the economy is on the mend, with inflation falling and things looking up.
But that’s not the reality for Watters and millions across Britain suffering from soaring food, energy and house prices. The lingering cost-of-living crisis is a top concern for voters in parliamentary elections to choose members to fill all 650 seats in the House of Commons, and the leader of the party that wins a majority, either alone or in a coalition, will become prime minister.
Sunak’s Conservative Party is widely expected to lose after 14 years in power, but the dire state of the economy and voters’ deep disillusionment with politics and politicians means that even if the opposition Labour Party wins, the pre-election mood is one of gloom rather than excitement and hope for change.
Inflation has returned to near-normal levels after soaring in recent years, but energy bills and the cost of goods in stores are still higher than they were before the pandemic began to spike. And while wages are starting to rise, mortgages and rents have skyrocketed, along with interest rates, taking a big chunk out of many household incomes.
Coral Dyer, a psychologist and mother of young children, was among shoppers queuing recently at a busy open-air market in Lewisham, south London, for a pound ($1.30) bowl of fresh vegetables.
“It’s a lot cheaper than the supermarket and you get a lot more,” she said, adding that money is getting tight as her income is barely enough to cover the costly childcare fees.
Mr Dyer, 37, laughed and shook his head when asked if he agreed with Mr Sunak’s upbeat message.
“I don’t think so,” she says. “I think we’re becoming more conscious of buying in bulk and shopping and eating differently to save money. It’s becoming less of a choice and more of a necessity.”
Like other countries, the UK experienced a double economic shock, first due to supply chain problems during the COVID-19 pandemic and then due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which caused prices to rise.
UK inflation is set to peak at 11% in the second half of 2022, the highest in 40 years, meaning take-home pay for most people, especially civil servants, is struggling to keep up with soaring prices.
Leading think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies said in March that the current Parliament has seen the worst growth in living standards since at least 1961. It added that between 2019 and 2023 the number of adults reporting they cannot properly heat their homes will more than double.
Mr Sunak stressed that the worst appears to be over: Inflation has now fallen to 2.3% and average wages are rising after more than a decade of sluggish income growth following the 2008 financial crisis.
But there is little to celebrate: the latest official figures, released last week, showed the economy grew 0.6% in the first quarter of the year, but was flat in April.
The IFS and many economists have warned that whoever wins the election will face tough choices between raising taxes or cutting public spending as they try to steer Britain out of economic stagnation while also grappling with a huge debt burden.
For those on welfare or on low incomes, talk of change and growth feels remote as they struggle to put food and heating on the table every day. The poorest people in the UK spend a significantly higher proportion of their income on basic needs and so are disproportionately affected by the cost of living crisis.
As more people fall into poverty, more people are turning to food banks, according to the Trussell Trust, which runs more than half of the UK’s food banks. The charity said it provided 3 million emergency food packs to people in need last year, including more than 300,000 people who used a food bank for the first time — a record for the charity.
At the Community Food Hub in Hackney, a rapidly gentrifying area of east London that has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK, volunteers say the amount of work packing bread and tinned foods for clients has not decreased in recent years.
“I’m hopeful that this election will be a fruitful one, but I personally have my doubts,” said Michelle Donnelly, who has been running the constituency since the pandemic began. “I don’t trust politicians to understand ordinary, working-class people. I’m disgusted that they don’t take the time to look at what we do and how people live.”
While Labour is leading by a large margin in the polls and victory is widely expected by political commentators and the public, there is a notable lack of optimism or belief among voters that either Mr Sunak or his rival Keir Starmer can bring about real change.
Food activist Watters said the situation won’t improve until those in power listen to struggling families.
“I think people are holding on to hope for change because things have been so bad for so long,” he says, “but there’s a shared sense of despair in my area (on council estates) that no matter what government is in power, there’s really no way change will happen.”
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