Councils should step in now – expand hardship funds to bail us out
Looming £2,000 household energy bills, thanks to Trump’s war, pose the question: why does it always have to be the working class that pays?
The government “is examining plans to support households with energy bills”, the Guardian reports. But then the article adds that chancellor Rachel Reeves “is under pressure from financial markets to limit the extent of the support to keep within budget spending limits”. In other words, big business is weighing in to try to ensure the working class carries the can.
The 2026 council elections in England and elections in Wales and Scotland provide an opportunity to say: ‘We won’t pay!’ Most candidates on the ballot paper will claim there is nothing that can be done – but that just isn’t true.
Local councils have powers to award grants to those unable to pay sky-high bills. Councils allocate support payments to households, as of 1 April, through the Crisis and Resilience Fund, for example. The Fund is for “households who encounter a financial shock”. As one immediate measure, the miserly portions currently allocated to the hardest hit could be expanded to cover the higher bills caused by Trump’s war.
Councils still account for over one-fifth of all spending on public services – billions of pounds! What is the point of councillors having authority to set huge budgets if they won’t use them to defend our services and communities?
Councils should first spend what’s needed – and then organise a campaign to demand the money back from Starmer’s government.
Let’s not forget that, under the pressure of the pandemic in 2020, Boris Johnson’s Tories increased public spending by £203 billion. This Labour government could be forced to make the billionaires and big business pay and not our class – if the pressure on it is big enough. Electing councillors committed to such a strategy would be a great start to building the mass working-class campaign we need!
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is standing 300+ candidates in May’s elections – the sixth-largest bloc of candidates and the only one committed to saying that working-class communities won’t be made to pay for Trump’s wars.
We demand
- Councils should expand their support payments to households to allocate payments to all those struggling with increased energy bills
- Councils should set emergency ‘needs budgets’ based on the public services our communities need. No cuts and no council tax rises
- Mobilise a campaign to demand the government fully funds councils. Take the wealth off the 1%
- Cut bills – nationalise energy under democratic working-class control and management, with no compensation for the fat-cat bosses
