'The city is falling apart' Leicester braces for a make-or-break budget

Anika* has a full-time job, but says she never eats in local cafes or restaurants, and takes her lunch to work. The cost of living is too high for her to buy more than the basics of life.

- Phillip Inman

"Everything is so expensive. I cry, and ask myself what more can I do to make things better," she says. The charity worker lives in Leicester, the local authority where people have the least spare cash after paying taxes, property ownership costs and pensions contributions.

It's not unusual for four families to share a house, one to each room, says Zinthiya Ganeshpanchan, the boss of the antipoverty and abuse charity she started 16 years ago, the Zinthiya Trust.

Speaking from a temporary office in the city centre, she says: "It is a difficult situation for many people. Money problems and the emotional problems from cramped living arrangements can lead to abusive relationships."

With 18 emergency rooms across Leicester for abuse victims who are made homeless, she is always busy, stepping into the void left by cuts to council services. "I think the city is falling apart," she says.

UK inflation has have fallen from its peak of 11.1% in 2022 to 3.8% in September, but prices are still more than 20% higher than they were three years ago. Struggling low and middle-income earners are now fervently hoping Rachel Reeves will deliver on hints she will use this month's budget to help "bear down on" rising costs.

In the meantime the cost of living crisis rumbles on, with the energy regulator Ofgem recording a record rise in UK household gas and electricity debt in the first half of this year to almost £4.5bn.

Leicester city council continues to run a unit dedicated to helping ease energy bills and tackle the poor health outcomes that follow from low-quality housing and a lack of heating. "We have a lot of Victorian housing with poor insulation and a large number of families on low incomes, which meant we had a huge increase in fuel poverty. That hasn't gone away," says Rob Howard, the city's head of public health.