Letter from Mark Langabeer, Hastings and Rye Labour member
I must confess, the Ashes series (women and men) and Wimbledon have acted as a distraction for me. No Panorama and fewer documentaries. However, reality soon returns.
There is speculation in the press on whether the Tory Government will honour the recommendations of the pay review bodies. These bodies are thought to be recommending a 6% rise for most public sector workers. The Tories used the review bodies to try to restrict pay to 5% last year. Personally, I think they will accept, because otherwise a new strike movement would be likely to develop. We shall see.
Although the strike wave has subsided, rail workers, doctors, lecturers and teachers are still in dispute. It has been announced that average pay has increased by over 7% over the last year. This is still below the inflation rate of nearly 9%, but it has been treated with dismay by the Bank of England and further interest rate rises are likely. It was reported that as many as 2.4 mn fixed-mortgage holders will end up paying big increases before December 24.
Many economists believe that inflation will fall by half in the next six months, based on the idea that energy costs will remain at current levels. The withdrawal of government subsidies means that most will still have high energy bills. It was said that the war in Ukraine was the main driver in energy costs and there doesn’t appear to be an early conclusion to this conflict. The Spring counter offensive of Ukraine has become a Summer offensive. A perfect storm is brewing. The Tories are on the rack and one big push would see the back of them.
