Cost of Living Crisis
Charlie wants to see the Government taking steps to ease the burdens on household budgets and get our economy growing again.
- In Westminster Charlie has used his role on the Business and Trade Select Committee to question Ministers about how we can tackle the cost-of-living crisis and get our economy growing again. For example, he recently asked the Minister for Trade about our free trade agreements and how we can get growth back on track.
- Charlie has spoken out against Thames Waters’ request to be allowed to raise household bills by even more than 35% over the next five years. In January, residents received letters from Thames Water confirming their Bills would be going up, on average, by £19 per month in the coming year. This is a real concern given the pressures on household budgets and Charlie has been clear that 35% is far more than enough – especially when so much of our bills are already being spent on sky-high interest rates for Thames Waters’ billions of pounds of debt.
- Charlie has meetings with local residents and businesses every week to hear about challenges they are facing. For example he recently spoke with local businesses about how apprenticeships and skills training could be reformed to better support career progression; and met Job Centre Plus in Witney to discuss how they support people into work.
- Along with Liberal Democrat colleagues in Parliament, Charlie is pushing for reforms to improve our welfare system and prevent people being driven into poverty and forced to rely on foodbanks to get by, including by:
- Tackling child poverty by removing the two-child limit and the benefits cap.
- Reducing the wait for the first payment of Universal Credit from five weeks to five days.
- Replacing the sanctions regime with an incentive-based scheme to help people into work.
- Equalising the rate of payment for all Universal Credit claimants regardless of age
- Making sure local authorities have the resource they need to support people who are at risk of, or who have become, homeless.