Govt: Most vulnerable to get significant support this winter
The economic secretary to the Treasury says the government plans to offer "significant support to the most vulnerable" this winter. Andrew Griffith says one of those measures will be payments of up to £900 to help those struggling to pay their energy bills. It comes as Ofgem's energy price cap takes effect this weekend amid concerns households could still end up paying around 13% more than last winter. Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 Well, the first thing is always talk to your supplier, but there is a significant support
00:06 that the government's providing to the most vulnerable. So as energy prices have fallen
00:11 and on the back of the very significant amount of support that we have put in generally over
00:16 the last two years, £3,300 per household on average, what this year's approach is to
00:23 target that much more to the vulnerable, payments of up to £900 to help with their bills.
00:29 And on top of that, there's the Household Support Fund, which is given to local councils
00:34 to help those in particular need. The figures from the ONS this morning are another positive
00:40 upgrade for the UK economy. They show that we're now growing faster than France and Germany
00:46 since the pandemic, and they prove the naysayers wrong. The UK economy has proven resilient.
00:53 There is more work to do. Our focus remains on bearing down on inflation, making the tough
00:58 choices that we need to do that because that's an invidious tax on every household. And also
01:04 by reducing inflation, that's the first way that we can reduce interest rates to help people with
01:09 their cost of borrowing. But it is good news. It shows that our plan is working and we need to
01:15 stick to that plan. Well, the government's doing a huge amount to level up, whether it's supporting
01:21 the UK Infrastructure Bank, which has a specific objective to deploy money on infrastructure to
01:28 level up the country and to help the transition to a clean, low-carbon economy, whether it's
01:33 support for the towns funds, whether it's investment zones and free ports. There is a
01:38 great deal that's going on for levelling up, but government completely serious about making sure
01:43 that everybody, wherever they live in this country, has the best opportunities that we have
01:48 an economy, the benefits of which are spread across all parts of the United Kingdom. And no one should
01:53 be in any doubt about the commitment to do that. Of course, it's right to look at any major project.
01:59 If there are overspends to look at choices around phasing and when the analysis is done,
02:04 when the decisions are made, of course, it's right that it's then communicated.