Live off the cash you stashed under your mattress and don’t expect a raise.
This appears to be Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey’s bungling message to the 28 million households facing the worst cost-of-living crisis in most people’s lives.
The £575,000-a-year governor urged that workers “think and reflect” before asking for higher wages to cover rising costs.
MPs accuse Bailey, an unpopular choice for the top job, of being “asleep at the wheel” as inflation soared to among the highest in the industrialized world last year.
Alongside him in the dock is Ofgem chief Jonathan Brearley, who earns £330,000 a year and failed to protect consumers from 31 high-risk pop-up “energy enterprises” that have failed.
According to charities and consumer groups, the move will result in prices rising even quicker.
Ofgem is also being criticized for failing to tighten down on packages that favor customers who can afford to pay by direct debit over others who must pay by cheque or in advance.
The two regulators are facing charges in connection with a cash crisis that is swallowing the poorest and oldest members of society as fuel and food prices skyrocket.
Behind them are Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who raised NICs for workers, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who refuses to abandon his beloved green “stealth tax” on energy costs.
Alarm bells are ringing.
Inflation is rising over the world, but economists claim that the rate in the United Kingdom is two percent.
Consumer groups claim that every British taxpayer is overpaying for gas and electricity.
They’re also seeing food costs rise, despite warnings of impending shortages.
Bailey’s main responsibility as governor is to keep inflation below 2%, where it has been for the past decade.
He must write a letter to the Chancellor explaining why it has risen above this threshold. Recently, he has been writing a lot of letters.
The retail prices index for April is predicted to grow from 7.5 percent to roughly nine percent in a month, putting it on course to exceed 10 percent this summer and soaring much higher before achieving its peak.
