Watford has a new topic of conversation. I’ve heard it, you will too, in supermarket queues, from parents at school drop off, within families and amongst anyone pausing for a chat in town.

“How am I going to afford my mortgage payments or rent?”

Initially a whispered worry, as interest rates and inflation started to rise, it’s now a cacophony. Everyone I know feels the impact on their monthly budgets. Bills outstrip any pay rise.

The reason? Prime Minister Liz Truss, a cabinet minister since David Cameron’s day together with her “Kamikwazi” chancellor, a veteran of Boris Johnson’s government, instantly decided everything they’d believed in before was wrong and within days of taking office crashed the economy.

Rising mortgage rates are solely down to the mayhem their mini-budget caused. It was a calamitous unforced error and self-inflicted wound. Their sums don’t add up. The pound has plummeted and the Bank of England has twice intervened to save pensions as a direct result.

This cost-of-living crisis is made in Downing Street but we pay the price in Watford. It matters greatly here, where housing is already expensive, and rents keep rising.

Keir Starmer’s Labour has a plan to get us out of this mess and secure a better future for Watford and for Britain – but things can only get better with a general election.

Until then, I am out and about, talking to directly residents about their worries and fears – how they will face choosing whether to heat or eat, how they are going to make ends meet to pay their mortgage and their bills over the next two years.

I believe in positive change and it cannot come soon enough.

  • Cllr Matt Turmaine is Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Watford