‘People can’t just get used to it’: Wolverhampton reacts to Bank of England comments

theguardian.com:

Karen Trainer, the manager of the Big Venture community centre and shop in Wolverhampton, could barely contain her anger as she watched the news on Wednesday morning.

She was hearing about the comments of the Bank of England economist Huw Pill, who said Britons should stop seeking pay increases and “accept” they are worse off in order to prevent prices rising further.

His choice of language has riled those who come face to face with the reality of the cost of living crisis on a daily basis.

Trainer said: “It feels like people don’t live in the real world. They need to come and spend a day here and see what’s going on. How can people ‘accept’ the fact they can barely afford a loaf of bread? People are in real poverty.”

Fern Lowndes, a fellow volunteer, said: “Unless they’ve seen that person walk through our door in floods of tears, embarrassed to be here, and it’s taken them up to an hour to calm down enough tell you what their situation is, they’ll never understand.”

Wolverhampton is the local authority with the highest fuel poverty rate in England, and the city council was one of the first to set up a network of “warm hubs” to help people with soaring energy costs over winter.

At the time, the council leader, Ian Brookfield, said he was “embarrassed” the scheme was needed. “At the most basic level we are trying to save lives. So I suppose that makes me embarrassed as a nation we’ve come to this,” he said.

Big Venture was one of the venues used as a warm hub over the colder months, and Trainer said a number of people had been calling for it to be brought back as a way to save money on heating bills and combat loneliness.

Trainer said: “We think things are going to get even worse now the government subsidy for gas and electric is