Thousands of hard-pressed families across the West of England are already living on the breadline. Another rise in the ever-growing cost of energy will tip them into the red.

But that is exactly what local people are facing, according to the UK’s energy regulator. Reports that the price cap will rise by nearly £1,000 a year will come as a sucker punch for thousands already struggling with the spiralling cost of sustaining themselves and their families.

This means, come October, energy bills for the average household in our region would have increased by a whopping 119% in just over six months. Yes, you read that correctly.

The sharp rise in energy bills will only add more financial pain to West of England families. Families like those I met in the Chew Valley and in Timsbury and Keynsham just last month. I listened to mothers who told me about having to use food banks to feed their children. Workers paying for the train to go to work but struggling to buy life’s essentials as a consequence. And pensioners agonising over choosing between heating and eating. That cannot be right, surely.

Rising energy bills, with inflation hitting a 40-year high and the worst squeeze in living standards in peacetime, require a government on the side of the people of the amazing towns and villages that make up North East Somerset. But sadly, this government has been missing in action. Until now.

After months of dithering and delaying, Prime Minister and the Chancellor used the week of the publication of the damning Sue Gray report (funny that) to announce a rushed-forward cost-of-living support package. This was funded through a windfall tax on the excess profits of oil and gas giants, something Labour proposed five months ago.

It’s right the Government has seen sense and the inevitable screeching U-turn has arrived. But while the Chancellor wavered, households across the West of England suffered needlessly. Frankly, it’s about time he got a grip. And quite honestly, I don’t care if the Government steals Labour’s better plans to support local people in the here and now. But we need to keep bills low in the future too.

That’s why the West of England Combined Authority under my leadership is getting on with retrofitting 250,000 homes across our region, vital to tackling the climate emergency and cutting those sky-high energy bills. That’s also why my bus plan includes capped fares, essential to meeting our 2030 net-zero target and making bus travel a simple and affordable choice.

When it comes to energy bills specifically - as with so much else - the Tories have been asleep at the wheel. After throwing glasses of fizz into the faces of thousands who did the right thing during lockdown, I’m glad the Prime Minister and his Chancellor have been shocked into action.