Overview
- Keir Starmer vowed "no let-up" in efforts to ease living costs and said 2026 should be the year families feel "real change."
- At the first cabinet meeting of 2026 on Tuesday, he will instruct ministers to propose additional ways to cut household bills.
- The government will promote a £150 energy-bill reduction from April and a national living wage increase worth about £900 for low-paid workers.
- Transport and fuel measures include the first rail fare freeze in over 30 years, capped bus fares, and an extension of the fuel duty cut until September.
- Labour points to six recent interest rate cuts lowering mortgage costs, while Conservatives and a CPS analysis criticise frozen tax thresholds and a reported £26bn tax rise for squeezing workers.