Councillors at last night’s Town Council meeting supported a Liberal Democrat proposal to establish a Cost-of-Living Emergency Fund to provide local support for those in need, such as the Foodbank, The Pantry and to promote warm hubs where people can come to keep warm or buy some hot food. I also proposed that this included setting up a “Fuelbank” in Burgess Hill to provide emergency support for those on prepayment meters who are disconnected.

Councillors also backed my condemnation of a Conservative government that is pushing through tax cuts for millionaires whilst ordinary people are suffering the biggest squeeze on their incomes for many decades, with government policies actively increasing inflation and interest rates to levels that will be unaffordable to many.

Our local Conservative MP Mims Davies is happy to support these proposals with the cost borne by future taxpayers, and the likelihood is that essential services such as the NHS and care for the elderly will be cut to help pay for them. Liberal Democrats would have funded the energy rebate by a windfall tax on the energy companies and provided support for ordinary people not the rich.