Andy Burnham has begun his Downing Street premiership "at a time when the cost-of-living crisis has never been more widely felt", a charity has said.
It comes as a record number of UK households are unable to afford basic necessities such as food and heating, new research reveals, with the crisis increasingly impacting those not traditionally considered to be struggling.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) reported that an estimated 7.4 million low-income households across the country could not afford at least one essential item in the past six months.
This marks the highest figure since the anti-poverty organisation launched its cost-of-living tracker survey in 2021, up from 7.1 million just a year ago.
More than half of households not receiving means-tested benefits, such as Universal Credit, are now struggling (53 per cent), a significant rise from 47 per cent two years prior.
The analysis is based on a survey of 4,121 households in the bottom 40 per cent of incomes between May 7 and June 5.
The JRF report, published on Wednesday, said: “The increase in the number of households that are going without essentials has mainly been driven by those who are typically less likely to suffer from material deprivation.
“The number of households going without essentials has increased fastest over the last two years for those not on means-tested benefits, those who own their property outright without a mortgage, families without any disabilities or health conditions, childless households, and households that are headed up by someone over the age of 65.”
On Tuesday, Mr Burnham told his first cabinet meeting that it needs to be a “cost-of-living government” and help those struggling with high costs.
The new prime minister emphasised his desire to assure Britons that "help is coming," tasking his top team with a mission to "take that little bit of pressure off people’s shoulders."
He urged his colleagues to identify both significant and minor measures their respective departments could implement to ease the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
Overall, households most likely to be unable to afford essentials are those on UC, headed up by someone under 25, by someone from a black or mixed ethnicity background, those containing non-UK citizens, and those with three or more children or in single-parent families.
Of those households on UC, 84% were unable to afford an essential item in the past six months, the latest survey suggested.
Essential items in the survey included food, basic toiletries, heating, suitable clothing and shoes.
Mr Burnham has started his time in Number 10 telling the country he wants to “give people breathing space”, and on his second day in the job announced an £850 million tax cut on electricity bills which will save households around £45 per year as part of efforts to “put more money in people’s pockets and bring back hope”.
While the VAT cut was welcomed by experts as a “positive statement of intent”, they warned it “does not address the scale of what households are facing” amid forecasts that household energy prices will remain high throughout this winter.
While figures this week indicated grocery price inflation has slowed to its lowest rate since December 2024, the average household’s grocery bill over the year to July is still £156 higher than the same period a year earlier.
JRF’s chief economist Chris Belfield said: “Andy Burnham starts his time as prime minister at a time when the cost-of-living crisis has never been more widely felt.
“This ongoing crisis is not numbers in a spreadsheet, it is not graphs trending up or down, it is families not being able to afford basic essential goods like food, heating and basic toiletries.
“The number of people not able to afford these essentials has hit record levels – 7.4 million households.
“This is the challenge facing Andy Burnham’s administration, but there is cause for optimism. Following the Government’s intervention to take £150 a year off energy bills and falling wholesale energy prices, half-a-million fewer households are unable to heat their home than two years ago.
“Government policy can work. We need greater intervention to control rental prices, make energy affordable and improve the adequacy of universal credit so everyone can afford the essentials.”
