The U.K.'s economy barely had time to recover from the battering of COVID-19 before it was hit by a global surge in energy and food prices largely triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While inflation has slowed from its 2022 high of 11%, millions across the U.K. are still feeling the squeeze from a persistent cost-of-living crisis. Dominic Watters, a single dad and founder of the Food is Care campaign, speaks at his home in Canterbury, England, Monday, June 10, 2024.
Coral Dyer, a psychologist who has a young child, was among shoppers lining up to buy 1-pound bowls of fresh vegetables at a bustling street market in Lewisham in south London on a recent day. Inflation in the U.K. hit a peak of 11% in late 2022, the highest the country had seen in four decades. For most, especiallyThe Institute for Fiscal Studies, a leading think tank, said in March that the current parliament has overseen the worst growth in living standards since at least 1961. It added that from 2019 to 2023, the number of adults who reported being unable to adequately heat their homes more than doubled.
More people are falling into poverty and more are turning to food banks, according to the Trussell Trust, which runs more than half of all U.K. food banks. The charity said it provided 3 million emergency food parcels to people in need last year — a record number for the trust — including to over 300,000 people who used a food bank for the first time.