Labour is calling for an emergency budget to bring forward more measures to tackle the cost of living crisis.

Surges in fuel, energy and food prices are hitting people’s pockets, with inflation running at a 30-year high.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC’s Sunday Morning show the government’s response had been “woeful” and demanded further measures like a windfall tax on energy firms.

A Downing Street source said the PM was working to ease the burden on families.

They said the PM was also focused on growing the economy, adding the Queen’s Speech, where the government outlines its future policies, was coming up and these issues were “utterly central to what the government is trying to do”.

The SNP called for an emergency budget earlier this month, saying the Tories had ignored the cost of living crisis “brewing under its watch”.

The party’s Treasury spokeswoman, Alison Thewliss, said: “Warm words now won’t heat up homes or food – only action will.

“The chancellor must immediately return to Parliament with an emergency budget that finally puts money into people’s pockets.”

Rural firms are set to lose out on hundreds of millions under revised funding plans unveiled in the recent Budget, the Country Land and Business Association has warned.

The CLA, which represents 28,000 rural businesses and farmers, has criticised the government for removing support aimed at levelling up the rural economy.

The group found that spending plans under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) will lead to a shortfall of £315 million for rural businesses over a seven-year period.

The figure represents the discrepancy in funding assigned to tackling regional economic disparities through the EU’s Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), versus what will be received under the UKSPF to bolster rural productivity.

But the government’s new plans signal a marked shift from previous EU investment models, where rural areas benefitted from a ringfenced fund every year. 

Closer inspection of the 2021/2022 Budget shows that there will be no dedicated funding in the UKSPF for rural businesses, as the ESIF rural fund had already been allocated for 2020/2021.

Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure from Conservative “red wall” MPs to go beyond existing support for the UK economy in Wednesday’s budget and cut taxes for thousands of retailers.

MPs across the political spectrum are increasingly uneasy that he may introduce income tax rises for middle earners, and the chancellor is facing calls from 45 northern Tories to make “a bold move to reduce business rates”.

The calls come as Sunak prepares for a major test on Wednesday as he seeks to find an extra £43bn to plug a hole in the UK’s post-pandemic finances while allowing the economy to recover from a third lengthy coronavirus lockdown.

George Osborne pledged to champion “the makers, the doers and the savers” of Britain as he outlined the most far-reaching pension reforms since 1921 in a budget aimed firmly at the Tory heartlands.

The chancellor presented his “budget for savers” with a package of help for pensioners as he revealed that the economy is growing faster than expected.

In his penultimate budget before the general election, Osborne announced that he would ease the burden on millions of people facing retirement by removing tax restrictions on pension pots.

For savers, who have been hit by Britain’s record interest rates, there will big changes to the tax-free Isa pension scheme. The tax-free annual limit will be raised from £5,500 to £15,000 and savers will be able to move funds between cash and stocks and shares Isas.

Osborne announced that he would also help “hardworking families”, with support for energy costs for households as well as businesses

Here is bit more flesh on the bones from the report itself:

George Osborne has announced the creation of what the government is describing as Britain’s first garden city for almost 100 years, by the Thames Estuary at Ebbsfleet.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday, the chancellor said that initially 15,000 homes would be built on the site, which has been chosen partly because a high-speed rail connection puts it within 19 minutes of central London.

Osborne also said he would use his budget on Wednesday to extend one of the government’s two Help to Buy schemes. He will pledge £6bn to extend the equity loan scheme to 2020, funding the construction of a further 120,000 homes.

School and health budgets will be protected – lets hope this helps keep small rural schools and local rural GP Surgeries in business

Public sector pay rises will be limited to 1pc a year in 2015/16 – more “hard love” for rural local government staff

Osborne introduced a “generous” new tax regime to promote early investment in shale gas – this is controversial but fascainting in  the contetxt of the balance between the environmental and energy pressures in rural England

The Government intends to progress two major carbon capture and storage projects –  I thought this agenda, which will definitely have an impact on rural communities was off the agenda

Personal allowance is to be raised to £10,000 by next year – one year earlier than planned – could be a real benefit for those suffering from in-work poverty in  rural England

Tax free childcare vouchers worth £1,200 per child are to be introduced, along with increased support for families with children on universal credit – a key agenda for those juggling with work and childcare challenges in rural England

The flat rate pension worth £144 a week is to be brought forward to 2016. – responds to some of the challenges faced by the rural elderly seeking to make ends meet

A cap on social care costs is to come in during 2017 and protect savings above £72,000 – as above

Under the Help to Buy scheme, the Government will commit £3.5bn of capital spending over next three years to shared equity loans. It will offer equity loans worth up to 20pc on a new build home for anybody looking to move up the housing ladder. A new mortgage guarantee, sufficient to support £130bn worth of loans, will be introduced to help people who cannot afford a big deposit – an effort at least to get the rural housing market going

September’s 3p rise in fuel duty has been cancelled – rural no brainer!

The Government is maintaining the planned rise for all alcohol duty, with the exception of beer and beer duty is being cut by 1p – keep the people happy with “bread and circuses ” or in this case beer! Should also help “the pub is the hub.”

Osborne is creating the employment allowance, which will reduce every business’ National Insurance payroll taxes by £2,000 – cracking move to support many small rural businesses

The big deal from a tax point of view is the removal of age related allowances for pensioners, which will impact disproportionately because of our skewed demography. The consultation on simplifying the tax system for small businesses and the consideration of enterprise loans to help young people start their own businesses could both be important to some of the distinctive economic challenges faced by small firms and rural youth in England.  

The decision to press ahead with a significant rise in fuel duty will undoubtedly be bad news in terms of rural transport costs and fuel poverty. The extra funding to help bring forward new homes is a very positive development although there may be challenges in terms of how much of that filters into the rural affordable housing agenda.

I suspect there is a lot more to discuss yet but the proposed move to regional public sector pay could hit those places with relatively few well paid jobs outside of the public sector – with particular pinch points in this context in rural parts of the South West, North East and West and Midlands. 

There are always some quirky things in budgets and I wonder what both the positive and negative impacts of the removal of the VAT exemption on static caravans will be?

With its promise of a possible new approach to environmental taxation, reporting on the future of aviation in the south east  and the publication of research on public sector pay, I think this budget, which the commentators say in big picture terms is broadly neutral, is more about setting a direction of travel with implications for rural communities than any distinctive “big ticket” distinctive rural impacts.

It continues: “A family with three children where each parent earns £26,000 will lose some £1,700 a year, and thousands more if their salaries fail to keep up with inflation. Even the Chancellor’s concessions on fuel duty are being eaten up by higher inflation almost before they begin: rising world oil prices have already wiped out the 1p fuel duty cut announced in the Budget.”

I think there are some costs which will disproportionately hit rural communities notwithstanding the easing off on fuel duty and dont forget in terms of the points made about salaries failing to keep pace with inflation that rural areas are far more heavily dependent on the public sector – which is facing and experiencing significant job losses.

Perhaps time to have a look again at the rural vulnerability index Dan Bates and I have developed to see how vulnerable your economy is.

You can find it on the local authority pages of the RSN website or I can send it to you if you ask me nicely.

“The cost of “filling up a family car such as a Ford Focus has increased by £10”, he said, and he wanted to do something to help. He said he was cutting corporation tax by 2p in the pound this year rather than the 1p reduction previously planned, and announced a shake-up of planning laws and a bonfire of regulations in an attempt to stimulate enterprise”

]All sounds good and from a travel cost perspective is a useful contribution – no sign of any rural enterprise zones however in the first new enterprise zones (which will give tax breaks to businesses investors underpinned by a simplified planning regime.

You can read more about them and the budget generally here. The new growth strategy is also worth downloading here.