PM Burnham admits cost-of-living measures insufficient, signals more support ahead

Three weeks into his tenure, Prime Minister Andy Burnham sat down with the BBC to deliver a message that amounted to a quiet acknowledgment: what he has already done is not enough. He had announced measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis—removing VAT from domestic electricity bills, accelerating the end of subscription traps that lock consumers into unwanted services. But when asked directly whether these changes would meaningfully help people struggling to pay their bills, he did not defend them. Instead, he reframed the problem as one of accumulation. Small interventions, layered one atop another, could gradually reduce the weight pressing down on household budgets. It was a philosophy born of constraint: do what you can, when you can, and acknowledge that the work is not finished.

The prime minister's broader ambitions, however, reach further. He spoke of overhauling how train fares are structured now that rail operators have returned to public ownership, and of bringing "more public control" to water, energy, and housing—sectors that have operated largely in private hands since the 1980s. These are not small ideas. Reversing the privatization of England and Wales's water companies alone would be, as Burnham himself noted, far from simple. Yet he framed them as necessary steps toward what he called "a more substantial answer" to the crisis. The details of how such a shift would happen, or when, remained unspoken.

Burnham is currently touring the country while Parliament is in recess, a schedule that keeps him visible and accessible. During these travels, he has already committed to a 20 percent cut in business rates for pubs, social clubs, and live music venues starting in April—a gesture toward an industry that has felt squeezed by rising employer national insurance contributions and higher minimum wages. But he stopped short of making new promises about broader business rate relief, deferring those conversations to the Budget scheduled for October 28.

That Budget looms as the real test. Burnham has asked Chancellor John Healey to prioritize cost-of-living support in the fiscal plan, and Healey has indicated he will do so. Yet the Chancellor is also committed to what he calls "strong fiscal discipline," a phrase that translates to hard limits on government spending. The tension is real. Labour's manifesto promised not to raise taxes on working people—no increases to income tax, VAT, or National Insurance Contributions. But a recent analysis from a major think tank warned that meeting Burnham's pledges on both defence spending and cost-of-living support while maintaining that tax promise may require either raising taxes elsewhere or cutting spending in other areas.

Burnham acknowledged the bind. He said he would like to bring down the cost of doing business and revitalize high streets across the country, but he was careful not to commit to specific measures. "I know that cannot be done by simply wishing it," he said. Those commitments, he made clear, would come in the Budget. For now, the prime minister is asking the country to trust that the pieces are being assembled—that the small things will add up, that the October announcement will bring substance, that the longer-term restructuring of essential services will eventually ease the pressure. Whether that accumulation of smaller measures will feel like enough to households already stretched thin remains the question he cannot yet answer.