Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves dodge April 1 bill hikes while millions of Britons suffer

The financial vise tightens this April as households across Britain face another brutal round of bill increases. Energy, water, council tax – all climbing while wages struggle to keep pace.

Yet in Downing Street, the pain feels distant. Subsidized flats, capped at £3,000 annually, shield the Prime Minister and Chancellor from the economic storms battering their constituents.

Small businesses bear the brunt of these policy decisions. The local hairdresser cancels apprenticeships. The corner pub cuts opening hours. Family-run shops reduce staff. All caught between mandatory wage increases and rising national insurance contributions that make hiring unaffordable. Meanwhile, water customers fund decades of corporate neglect through £123 annual hikes while those in power remain insulated from the consequences.

The disconnect grows harder to ignore. As food bank queues lengthen and families choose between heating and eating, the comfortable certainties of government-provided housing and transport appear increasingly divorced from reality. Wage growth statistics sound impressive in press conferences but evaporate against the relentless rise of essentials.

This isn’t just about money – it’s about shared experience. When leaders don’t feel the pinch of rising costs, when their housing and transport remain untouched by inflation, how can they truly understand the daily calculus of ordinary Britons? The water crisis lays bare this divide: customers pay for failures they didn’t create while decision-makers remain protected from the financial consequences of their policies.

As another round of bills arrives, the question lingers – who exactly is this economy working for? The answer seems increasingly clear, and increasingly troubling.