Everyone knows how expensive life in Britain has become in 2026. No part of our community has escaped rising prices – from energy bills and fuel to food, education, holidays, clothes and entertainment.

Our small and local businesses are facing many of the same pressures, alongside a raft of punitive new taxes from Labour.

Andy Burnham promised, in no uncertain terms, to run a “cost-of-living government”. I have no doubt many voters in his Makerfield by-election found some comfort in hearing Keir Starmer’s successor speak with apparent empathy about the pressures facing families.

We are still waiting to see what his cost-of-living government intends to do, and, more importantly, how it will pay for it.

Burnham’s proposed reduction in energy bills not only falls short of what Labour previously promised – as I wrote last week – but is reportedly entirely unfunded. Cancelling Keir Starmer’s ill-conceived Digital ID scheme was clearly not the financial silver bullet his successor hoped it might be.

The same is true of bringing back the Conservatives’ £2 bus fare cap – something I strongly support and know is particularly important for rural and semi-rural communities like ours. Yet Labour’s Transport Secretary was quick to admit that they still had not worked out how to pay for it.

Then there was Burnham’s brief flirtation with raising the income tax personal allowance. That idea disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived.

Unfunded promises might generate headlines and help manufacture a short-term “Burnham bounce” in the polls, but they do not solve the fundamental problem facing families and businesses.

The reality is that working households are being squeezed from all sides. Labour’s new jobs taxes will cost working people more than £1,000 over two years through lower wages. Families are paying more at the petrol pump, more for their energy, more in rent and more at the supermarket.

And Labour’s answer remains the same: spend more, then tax more to pay for it.

That is not a cost-of-living strategy. It is a recipe for making Britain even more expensive.

At some point, Labour will have to confront the fact that it has run out of other people’s money.

There is a different approach. We need to grow the economy, make better use of Britain’s natural resources to unlock wealth and investment, and scrap unnecessary taxes that hold businesses and families back. That is what the Conservatives believe.

That means keeping taxes such as council tax under control, scrapping stamp duty, abolishing unfair interest on Plan 2 student loans, and protecting family businesses and farms from Labour’s punitive new taxes.

Most importantly, it means giving ordinary people the opportunity to earn, save, invest and build something of their own.