Ahead of today’s Budget, Waltham Forest Labour are repeating our call to the Chancellor to reverse plans to abolish the Household Support Fund.

The Fund is designed to help families hit by the cost of living crisis. Over the last year, local households struggling to make ends meet received support worth £4.7m which helped us provide free school meals during school holidays, direct payments to households and school breakfasts but now ministers seem determined to axe the fund, further deepening the cost of living crisis for households across Waltham Forest.

The budget comes with the UK economy in recession, shattering Rishi Sunak’s promise to deliver growth over the last year.

Labour’s Grace Williams said,

“People in Waltham Forest are already struggling with a Conservative cost of living crisis and Rishi’s Recession. It is astonishing that the Tories are planning to make things even worse by removing one of the last lines of support for families who need it.

“The Household Support Fund helps local families cover the basics – food and energy – to kick that away now isn’t just incompetence, it’s cruelty. At this week’s budget the Chancellor must think again.

“But the truth is the Conservatives can’t solve Waltham Forest’s problems – they are the problem. Labour has a plan to get Britain’s future back. We need a general election now so we can get on and deliver it.”