On Tuesday of last week I declared a cost of living emergency in Birmingham. As the leader of the largest local authority in Europe with a population of over 1.14m people, I felt that there was no alternative.

We have been hit by a perfect storm: inflation is at the highest levels for over 40 years and energy prices are rising at the fastest rate in living memory. The intervention from Prime Minister Liz Truss, to cap average household energy bills for 2 years at £2,500 (the energy cap was due to rise to £3,549) is certainly welcome but even at this level people will be paying more than double for their energy compared to this time last year. Coupled with inflationary rises on every-day items and a failure of wage increases to keep pace, the ‘squeeze' on household incomes has become a vice-like grip.