Cost of living

That this House expresses its deepest concerns about the explosion in the cost of living and its impact on millions of working people across the country, with inflation now at nine per cent, wages stagnating or declining and the cost of energy, food, transport, childcare and many other essentials rising at an alarmingly rapid rate; notes that the situation has become so desperate for millions of people that we are now facing a social emergency; acknowledges this has been compounded by global forces such as the war in Ukraine and the pandemic, but reminds the Government that failure to help people with the cost of living totally undermines any serious attempt to level up our country; and calls on the Government to take radical action in the form of a Marshall Plan style investment scheme to invest in decent jobs and pay, public services, research and development, infrastructure and energy, particularly in held back areas, which could be paid for by taxing wealth, levelling up taxes on capital gains, dividends and other forms of wealth so as to be in line with at least the basic rate of income tax, and taking action on offshore loopholes and clamping down on tax avoidance.