16/10/2026

UK households have paid extra £13,961 on bills since 2021 amid soaring inflation.

UK households have paid almost £14,000 on average in additional costs for mortgages, loans, energy and water bills over the past five years, according to a report from TUC.

According to analysis of official figures by the union umbrella body, British households have forked out an additional £13,961 on bills on average since 2021 – an extra £2,792 a year – amid soaring inflation triggered by the exit from the Covid pandemic and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The report highlighting the costs from sticky inflation and higher interest rates, the analysis showed households with mortgages had spent on average £9,034 extra on repayments (£1,806 extra a year) since 2021. Those with loans had paid £1,911 extra in total (£382 extra a year).

Average rental costs have risen at a higher rate than mortgages, suggesting mortgage costs are being passed on to renters.

In the study of Office for National Statistics figures, it found households had spent on average £2,644 extra on electricity and gas bills since 2021 (£529 extra a year), and £372 extra on water bills (£74 extra a year).

The Tory’s solution:

call for 5-year freeze on minimum wage to tackle youth unemployment.

The call came in a report from the Prosperity Institute thinktank, which carries an endorsement from Andrew Sharpe, the shadow business minister. Sharpe said in his endorsement that it was time to take action to address the low rate of young people in work.

The paper recommends freezing the “national living wage” at £12.71 for five years and abolishing the Low Pay Commission (LPC), the independent body that recommends the yearly increase.

It also recommends returning employer national insurance contributions to pre-April 2025 levels and reinstating the two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal, which was abolished under Labour’s Employment Rights Act.

The paper says a five-year freeze could result in an increase of about 270,000 young people in work, by suggesting that for every 1 percentage point increase in the minimum wage there is a a 0.37 percentage point decrease in the youth employment rate.

But it is clear that the British population will be much worse off under the Tories, as their previous experience of governance has proved. It can also be said that the Labour Party cannot go beyond certain limits, so the solution to these problems lies with the people themselves, by organizing themselves outside the control of the ruling parties and the authoritarian organizations. It is also self-confidence to take direct action to achieve their goals.