Editorial: Crisis beyond cost?

Like a gathering storm cloud, the cost of living crisis is building but has yet to fully break. If predicted rises of 75% or more in fuel bills happen just as we enter the colder months, and with food and housing costs also showing a sudden sharp upturn, matters will rapidly worsen for a large sector of society, with consequences that few so far appear to have thought through.

Yet there must be a real risk of some sort of societal breakdown if, potentially, millions of people are simply unable to afford to eat and/or to heat their homes, or perhaps even the money to stay in them. The prospect of mass destitution in our supposedly prosperous nation is far from a fanciful one.

If that is right, the response from public authorities – also facing massive cost pressures – becomes much more than a political issue, to be debated alongside tax cuts or spending priorities. Legal rights and duties are certain to come into play, whether at the level of testing the protections for individuals provided by the various Conventions to which the United Kingdom is party, or claims under the statutory frameworks designed as safeguards against, for example, homelessness, lack of care for the vulnerable, or indeed consumer exploitation. Our advice agencies, as well as the frontline authorities, could easily find themselves completely overwhelmed.

Already there are signs of self help movements organising. One group is urging energy customers to cancel their direct debits from 1 October, when the next price rises take effect. Another maintains that the smarter thing to do, and less risky to continued supply as well as customers’ credit ratings, is to flood the suppliers with complaints (it costs them if these end up before an ombudsman).

Such actions would at least take place within a legal framework. What more might people resort to if they see no way out of their situation? Scotland’s drug death figures are already a scandal, but there is a close correlation (likewise with alcoholism) with areas of deprivation, and if that problem becomes more acute, these related issues may well worsen. Added to that will be the temptation to engage in drug supply, or turn to the sex trade, or other activities where the writ of the law does not fully run. Any of these trends would have a negative impact on the legal as well as the social order.

The scale of the pending crisis – its suddenness and its severity, on present projections – calls for some radical, outside-the-box thinking. Tinkering with tax rates and the like will not make much difference, especially to those already more or less removed from the tax net. More, and greater, direct support is likely to be needed if our public sector framework, on which so many of our rights depend, is not to start coming apart at the seams. It is time for all who hold political power to take responsibility.