The impact of the cost of living throughout the UK

Today we launched the tenth briefing in our series on the cost of living crisis, as we address the question “what is the impact of the cost of living crisis on tenants – and how should the sector respond”.

Having started to fall, CPI inflation last month increased to 4 per cent. The cost of living continues to place huge pressures on people across the UK. We look at what this means in practice for social housing providers and tenants summarising the latest research and data available and examining the impact across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The briefing also highlights different ways social housing providers are responding and provides an index of useful resources for both housing providers and tenants.

To address the immediate and longer-term pressures outlined in the briefing we are calling on government to use its Spring Budget on 6 March to provide the support people need. We call on government to:

• Reform welfare provision to support those on the lowest incomes
• Invest in homelessness prevention and support
• Support people with energy costs and continue to drive decarbonisation and energy efficiency improvements in homes
• Increase grant levels to boost the supply of affordable housing
• Investing in existing and new supported housing to meet a range of needs.

You can find out more about more our cost of living briefings series and read previous issues here. CIH members can also catch up any of our previous cost of living events at Cost of living crisis briefings - series.