Murphy pushes Treasury to release funds to deal with cost of living crisis

The chancellor needs to take immediate steps to address the cost of living crisis, Stormont’s Finance Minister has said.

Conor Murphy was speaking after he joined with his Scottish and Welsh counterparts for the meeting with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke, to discuss spiralling energy costs.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will deliver his spring statement on Wednesday and has faced pressure to help households with rising living costs.

During ministerial question time, Mr Murphy told the Assembly that he hoped Wednesday would bring “something substantial”.

He said:  “I had an engagement this morning with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, alongside the Scottish and Welsh finance ministers ahead of the announcements that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will make on Wednesday.

“I hope it does begin to address some of the issues we have been pressing them on consistently, like excise duties, like VAT on energy bills, like the rebate on red diesel which is effecting rural families and farms and small contractors.

“All of these issues, alongside the events in Ukraine which are putting an even bigger squeeze on cost of living are all creating a real sense of crisis out there.

“There are steps immediately which the British Government could take and I hope we hear something substantial announced on Wednesday.”

Mr Murphy faced questions on what steps Stormont ministers had taken to address soaring energy bills.

He said: “A number of measures have already been introduced, including the £2m emergency fuel payment scheme, a £55m energy payment support scheme delivered by the department for communities,

“As a result of the absence of the Executive my budget proposals to freeze rates for three years could not be agreed.

“Despite this on March 2 I was able to announce a freeze on rates for the next 12 months, this is in addition to the provision of the small rates relief scheme which currently supports almost 29,000 businesses and premises.

“In conjunction with other measures, including the freezing of Housing Executive rents, this provides further help for the rising costs being faced by businesses and families alike.”

Mr Murphy was questioned by SDLP MLA Justin McNulty on whether he would support an attempt to introduce emergency legislation to free up £300m in funding to help with the cost of living.

The status of the £300 million has become the subject of intense political debate, with Mr Murphy insisting the extra money for 2022/23 cannot be accessed due to the DUP move to collapse the Executive.

However, the DUP dispute this, insisting the £300 million is not intrinsically linked to the budget settlement and could be distributed in a separate process involving Mr Murphy and individual departments bidding for allocations.

Mr Murphy said: “An initial £300m has become available in 2022/23 since the draft budget was agreed for consultation and while there is no mechanism to allocate this funding in the absence of an Executive, I have asked ministerial colleagues to bring forward costed proposals on the supports which their departments can deliver.

“This will allow us to move quickly once an Executive is restored.

“The clearest, most consistent way, the most obvious way to allow us to take decisions to spend the money to support families is to reform the Executive and sit round the table and get back to work.

“That could be done in an instant.”