VOLOGRAMSCANNING

At least a quarter of NHS trusts in England have increased the cost of parking in the two years to March 2024.

The hikes were criticised by a patients’ charity who accused bosses of unfairly penalised people who are sick.

But health experts said hospitals are ‘under huge financial pressure’ and simply cannot afford to maintain car parks free of charge.

Some 37 trusts – 25% of the 147 in England – said they had raised the price of parking at some point between April 2022 and March 2024.

While 122 of the 147 trusts responded to the FoI request, 25 did not, meaning the actual number who upped their charges may be higher.

There were 65 trusts – 44% of the 147 in England – who said there had been no increases during the two-year period.

Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said: ‘NHS trusts – most of whom are under huge financial pressure – just couldn’t afford to maintain car parks without charging people to use them.

‘The last thing trusts want to do is have to divert money away from patient services.

‘City centre and urban hospital car parks where spaces are in great demand are a particular challenge.’

However, Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, a charity supporting the interests of all patients and their families, claims charges ‘unfairly penalise’ unwell people.

‘With car parking charges increasing again this year at many NHS hospital sites, patients and their families are facing an even greater financial strain,’ she said.

‘The ongoing cost-of-living crisis is already pushing many households to the brink, and these charges unfairly penalise people simply for being unwell and needing access to essential healthcare.’

Here’s a list of the NHStrusts where the charges have increased, according to data compiled from Freedom of Information requests.

– Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Charges were increased from February 1, 2023. Up to 20 minutes remained free, while stays of up to two hours, two to three hours, three to four hours and four to five hours all increased by 50p to £4.50, £5.50, £6.50 and £7.50 respectively. Stays of five to six hours and the weekly rate remained the same. Charges for stays of more than six hours increased by £1 to £10.

– Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

Charges were increased from February 1, 2023. Up to 20 minutes remained free, with charges for up to two hours, two to three hours, three to four hours and four to five hours increasing by 50p to £4.50, £5.50, £6.50 and £7.50 respectively. The day rate of more than six hours increased by £1 to £10. Tariffs for five to six hours remained the same (£8), as did the weekly rate (£25).

– Barts Health NHS Trust

Tariffs were increased for patients and visitors during the period at Newham Hospital only. Up to one hour was a new charge at £2. Up to three hours increased by 70p to £3.70, while up to six hours increased by £1 to £7. Charges for an eight-hour stay and up to 24 hours remained the same at £8 and £16.50 respectively.

– Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The trust increased prices on July 1, 2023. Stays of two hours, two to three hours and three to six hours all increased by 20p to £2.70, £3.20 and £4.20 respectively. Six to 24 hours increased by 30p to £6.30.

– East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

The trust increased primary care tariffs and charges at Ipswich Hospital in August 2022, followed by Colchester Hospital in January 2023. Up to 30 minutes at both hospitals remained free, although charges for one, two and four hours increased by 20p, 30p and 50p respectively to £2.20, £3.30 and £4.50.

There was a £5.50 charge introduced for five hours and a £10 charge for 24 hours. The price of an eight-hour stay increased to £6.50 from £5.

However, a five-day pass was cheaper at £12, down from £15, while a seven-day pass was £4 cheaper at £14. In primary care, one hour was free, with two hours costing 30p more at £3.30. A stay of four hours increased by 50p to £4.50, eight hours was £1.50 dearer at £6.50 and 24 hours was £2 dearer at £12. A five-day pass was £1 dearer at £16, although the price of a seven-day pass remained the same at £18.

– East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

Tariffs were increased from January 2024:

Up to one hour – Up by 20p to £2

One to two hours – Up by 20p to £3.60

Two to three hours – Up by 25p to £5.20

Three to four hours – Up by 35p to £7

Four to five hours – Up by 40p to £8.50

Five to six hours – Up by £1 to £10.20

Six to 12 hours – Up by £1.10 to £11.80

Twelve to 24 hours – Up by 85p to £18.30

– Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

In 2022/23, the trust increased charges for up to two hours from £3.30 to £3.50. In 2023/24, the tariff for up to two hours increased to £3.80, while three to four hours went up from £5.50 to £6 and a four to five-hour stay increased from £6.50 to £7.

– Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Up to 20 minutes remained free, with the charge for up to one hour increased from £1.10 to £1.50 in 2023/24. Elsewhere:

One to two hours – up by 80p to £3

Two to three hours – up by £1.20 to £4.50

Three to four hours – up by £1.60 to £6

Four to five hours – up £2 to £7.50

Five to six hours – up £2.20 to £10

After 6pm, charges for up to two hours increased by 40p to £1.50, while more than two hours is £1 dearer at £3.

– Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

There was a change in durations and charges from December 1, 2022. Up to 30 minutes remained free, while tariffs for up to one hour increased by 20p to £2. The trust stopped charging on the half hour, instead charging on the hour. For example, there was no longer a £2.80 charge for one hour 30 minutes. The tariff changed to one to two hours at a cost of £3. Elsewhere, the £10 eight-to-24-hour stay changed to 12 to 24 hours at a cost of £16.

– Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The trust increased its prices for visitors by 3.9%, which it said was in line with inflation.

– Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

The trust increased the price of staff permits as well as tariffs for visitors.

The price of a standard £30 staff permit, for example, went up by 2.3% to £32.24. Hourly charges were also increased across its sites, including Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s University Hospital.

– London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust

Hourly tariffs were increased by a total of 2.6%, while concessions, including weekly passes, went up by 1.0%. There was no increase to charges for patients having chemotherapy.

– Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust

Prices were increased from 2023. Up to 30 minutes remained free, with a charge of £2.50 introduced for 30 minutes to one hour. Elsewhere, stays of two to four hours, four to six hours and six to eight hours previously cost £4, £6 and £8 respectively, but charges for stays of two to three hours (£4), three to four hours (£5), four to five hours (£6), five to six hours (£7) and six to seven hours (£8) were introduced.

The trust previously charged £10 for stays of eight to 10 hours. Now, a stay of seven to 10 hours costs £10, while 10 to 16 hours is £12 and 16 to 24 hours is £15.

– Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust

The trust said it aligned its car parking tariffs for patients and visitors across all its hospital sites following the reinstatement of parking charges post-Covid.

– Medway NHS Foundation Trust

The trust increased charges for stays of up to two hours, two to three hours, three to four hours and four to five hours by 20p, 30p, 40p and 50p respectively to £2.20, £3.30, £4.40 and £5.50. Stays of between five and 24 hours remained the same at £10.

– Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Charges did not increase for patients during the period. However, the trust did change its staff charging structure, meaning some worker tariffs increased and others were reduced. Band seven staff and above were charged more for permits.

– Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

According to its disclosure log, the trust increased tariffs. The charge for 15 minutes to one hour went up by 10p to £2.80, a three-hour stay increased by 20p to £3.70, up to six hours went up by 20p to £5, up to eight hours increased by 20p to £5.50, while up to 24 hours increased by 40p to £11. A weekly ticket is now £21, up from £20, and a lost ticket costs £11, up from £10.60.

– North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust

The trust increased the tariff at its long-stay car park at the University Hospital of North Tees from December 1, 2023. The rate had previously been £2 per 14 hours and was increased to £2.50 per 14 hours. All other parking rates remained unchanged from 2022/23 to 2023/24.

– North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust

Tariffs increased by 20p per hourly session at Hinchingbrooke Hospital and Peterborough City Hospital, but charges were not increased at Stamford and Rutland Hospital.

– Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust

The trust increased tariffs for staff and patients during the period. For the public, up to one hour went from £2.40 to £2.70, one to two hours increased from £3.90 to £4.40, two to four hours went up from £4.40 to £5 and more than four hours increased from £4.90 to £5.50.

Off-site barrier charges for staff increased from £8.50 to £9.60, while off-site non-barrier charges increased from £9.45 to £10.60. The charge for on-site barrier car parks went up from £25.50 to £28.40.

– Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The trust increased tariffs for patients and visitors at John Radcliffe Hospital, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and Churchill Hospital on August 1, 2023. Up to 30 minutes remained free, although 30 minutes to one hour increased from £1.40 to £2.20. A one to two-hour stay was 10p cheaper at £2.70, as well as a two to three-hour stay which went from £4.20 to £3.70. Three to four hours increased from £5.60 to £6.20 and the cost for more than four hours went up by £1 to £8. Stays between 8pm and 8am were previously free but now cost £2.

– Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust

According to the trust, staff are charged 1.25% when they park on site. It added that a 10% increase in 2023 ‘was based on the fact that the patient tariff had not been increased for four years’ and therefore ‘10% was a fair increase based on inflation’.

– Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

The trust increased the costs of its staff permits and parking charges for visitors. A multi-site pass and a pass for the Royal Free Hospital increased from £94.28 to £99.84 per month for full-time staff from April 1, 2023. Part-time staff are charged £49.82, up from £47.14. Tariffs for off-peak and weekend parking also increased slightly.

The staff permit tariff at Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals is charged based on a percentage of salary. These percentages increased from 0.84% to 0.89% for full-time staff and 0.42% to 0.45% for part-time staff at both sites. For patients, hourly charges were increased across all three hospitals from December 1, 2023.

– Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust

One hour £3.70 increased to £3.90

Two hours £4.70 increased to £4.90

Three hours £5.30 increased to £5.60

Four hours £5.80 increased to £6.10

Six hours £6.80 increased to £7.10

Twenty-four hours £9.80 increased to £10.30

– Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

Charges were increased by 4%.

– Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

Tariffs for patients and visitors increased on January 15, 2024. Stays of up to two hours, two to three hours, three to six hours and six to 10 hours all increased by 50p each to £5, £6, £7, and £8 respectively. Stays of between 10 and 24 hours increased from £6 to £13.

For staff, charges were reintroduced on June 1, 2023 and are banded by annual salary. Those earning £23,000 or below pay 50p a day, while those on between £23,500 and £47,600 pay £1.25 a day. Workers on the highest salaries of £48,000 or above pay £1.80 a day.

– The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Tariffs were increased in October 2022. Up to 30 minutes is free, up from 15 minutes, although charges for up to one hour increased from £1.20 to £2. One to two hours increased from £2.40 to £4, two to three hours increased from £3.60 to £6 and three to four hours increased from £4.80 to £8.

A standard tariff for four to five hours is £12, up from £6, but will cost patients £8. A standard charge is £18 for five to 24 hours, but is £8 for patients. Previously, the standard charge for five to six hours and six to 24 hours was £7.20.

– The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Stays of less than 15 minutes remained free but there was a 20p increase for stays of up to one hour, one to two hours, two to three hours and four to five hours.

– Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust

The trust changed its prices for patients and visitors from November 2023.

Up to 30 minutes – previously 20 minutes – was now free, with up to one hour costing £1.50. The price for two hours increased from £2.50 to £2.70, three hours was now £3.90, up from £3.50, and four hours cost £4.80, up from £4.50. The price for stays of five hours and six hours remained the same. The charge for between seven and 24 hours was £15, with the £10.50 tariff for eight hours no longer available.

– University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust

The trust upped charges for its short and long-stay car parks from September 2023. At the short stay, up to one hour increased by 20p, stays of up to two and three hours increased by 40p to £4.90 and £5.90 respectively, while up to four hours increased by 50p to £7. Stays of up to five hours increased from £7.50 to £8.10, and six hours went from £8.50 to £9.20. Stays of between six and 12 hours increased by £1 to £14 and between 12 and 24 hours is now £17.30, up from £16.

At the long-stay sites, there was no change to the charge for seven days. Stays of 14 days increased from £38.50 to £41.60 and 30 days was now £59.40, up from £55.

– University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

Up to 40 minutes was free, while up to two hours cost £3.50. The trust previously charged £1.80 for up to one hour and £3.40 for one to two hours.

A two to four hour stay was now £6, up 20p, while four to six hours increased by 20p to £7.30. A six to eight-hour stay remained the same at £12 while eight to 24 hours went up by £1 to £16.

– University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust

Tariffs were increased at University Hospital in Coventry and Hospital of St Cross in Rugby. At University Hospital up to 10 minutes remained free. Up to one hour increased by 40p to £3.60, two hours went from £4.40 to £5, three hours increased by 70p to £5.70 and four hours went up by 80p to £6.80. Stays of five hours increased by £1.10 to £8.90, up to six hours is £11, up from £9.70 and a 24-hour stay increased from £11 to £12.50.

At Hospital of St Cross, up to 30 minutes remained free. Up to three hours increased by 30p to £2.30, while up to five hours increased from £4.80 to £5.50. The tariff for up to 24 hours was now £9.70, up from £8.50.

– University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

The price of a two-hour stay increased by 40p, while stays of three, four and six hours increased by 30p, 40p and 20p respectively. There was no change to prices for a 24-hour stay, although overnight – between 6pm and 7am – increased by £1.

– Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust

In 2023/34, the trust increased parking for up to one hour to £3.30 from £3.

One to two hours increased from £4 to £4.30, two to three hours increased from £4.50 to £4.80, three to four hours increased from £5 to £5.80, and four to five hours increased from £5.50 to £5.80. There was no change to charges for 5-6 hours, 6-7 hours, 7-8 hours, 8-9 hours, 9-10 hours, 10-11 hours, 11-12 hours, 12-24 hours, or a weekly pass.

– Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

One hour – up by 30p to £3.30

Two hours – up by 40p to £4.40

Three hours – up by 50p to £5.50

Four hours – up by 60p to £6.60

Five hours – up by 65p to £7.15

Six hours – up by 75p to £8.25

Eight hours – up by 85p to £9.35

Twenty-four hours – up by 90p to £9.90

– Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

Charges increased at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, Leigh Infirmary and the Freckleton Street multi-storey in November 2022. Drop-offs and up to 30 minutes remained free, stays of up to two hours increased by 30p to £3.30, two to four hours and four to 24 hours increased by 50p to £5.50 and £7 respectively.

Charges at Wrightington Hospital and the Thomas Linacre Centre also increased in November 2022. Drop offs at up to 30 minutes remained free, while stays of up to one hour and one to two hours increased by 30p each to £2 and £3. Two to four hours and four to 24 hours increased by 50p each to £5.50 and £7.

– York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The trust said charges were brought in line with nearby council car parks at its York, Scarborough and Bridlington sites as part of the installation of automatic number plate registrations in April 2023.

In York, up to one hour increased by 30p to £2.50, with a 60p increase for two hours (£5), a £1.10 increase for three hours (£7.50) and a 20p increase for four hours to £9. All-day passes increased by 10p to £10.

In Scarborough, one hour increased by 25p to £1.45, two hours increased by 40p to £2.90, three hours went from £3.50 to £4.35 and four hours increased from £4.50 to £5.80. An all-day pass increased by £1.20 to £7.20.

In Bridlington, stays of up to an hour were 20p cheaper at £1. Stays of two, three and four hours remained the same and an all-day pass was made 60p cheaper at £5.40.

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Tens of thousands of pensioners will not receive the winter fuel payment this Christmas due to a massive backlog in claims, forcing them to fend for themselves as temperatures plummet.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is grappling with waves of new claims for pension credit after Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in July that those receiving the benefit will also be entitled to the winter fuel allowance.

The DWP faced a backlog of more than 91,000 claims in mid-November, with around 9,400 being processed each week, Government figures show.

As more pensioners hoping to avoid fuel poverty this Christmas scramble to apply for the benefit, the backlog of tens of thousands of claims is expected to drag into the New Year.

The DWP said it has hired 500 additional staff to speed up the processing of the enormous pile of claims.

This year, around 10 million pensioners will be stripped of the winter fuel allowance – a payment of up to £300 aimed at helping the elderly cover their heating costs – after Mrs Reeves announced that it will be means-tested.

The Government hopes that the policy, which is expected to save £2.8bn, will help it cope with the £22bn ‘black hole’ in public finances which Labour says was left behind by the Conservatives.

After the cuts were revealed on 29 July, the Government launched a campaign urging those entitled to pension credit to apply for it so that they could also receive the winter fuel allowance.

However, the campaign backfired as the number of pension credit claims surged, lowering the amount of savings the Treasury could make below what it had originally anticipated.

Research from the Policy in Practice consultancy has shown that there could be 158,000 more claims than predicted ahead of the pension credit deadline in December, costing the Treasury an additional £246m.

Pensioners have said they feel ‘utterly betrayed’ by the Labour Government – a sentiment toppled by its decision to rule out compensation for Waspi women who were not informed about changes to their state pension age.

Around 3.6 million Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi), born between 1950 and 1960, were negatively impacted after the DWP failed to inform them that their state pension age would rise from 60 to 65.

Waspi campaigner Frances Neil, 71, said that, on top of having her winter fuel allowance cut, she missed out on pension payments ‘in the region of £30,000’ as a result of the changes.

Ms Neil said that being denied compensation after having her winter fuel allowance cut ‘just piles unhappiness and financial stress upon unhappiness and financial stress.

She told Metro:’It just feels like you’re being kicked when you’re down.’

‘We’ve been utterly betrayed,’ Ms Neil said. ‘The Labour Party were happy to use their support for us when they were electioneering.

‘It was [Keir] Starmer who said the Tory Government was kicking the can down the road with compensating us. Angela Rayner said we should get compensation for this utterly awful situation.

‘Now they’re saying we don’t deserve compensation at all.’

Labour’s decision to rule out compensation for Waspi women came after a damning report by the parliamentary ombudsman found that the DWP failed to properly communicate changes to the state pension age.

The watchdog called for each Waspi woman to be paid up to £2,950 in compensation, costing the Government as much as £10.5bn.

However, Labour rejected the ombudsman’s findings, saying women affected knew about the changes to the state pension age and that sending more letters would not have made a difference.

‘We cannot accept that in the great majority of cases, sending a letter earlier would have affected whether women knew their state pension age was rising,’ Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said.

‘The Government does not believe paying a flat rate to all women at a cost of up to £10.5bn would be a fair or proportionate use of taxpayers’ money.

‘Not least when the previous Government failed to set aside a single penny for any compensation scheme and when they left us a £22bn black hole in the public finances.’

The DWP has been contacted for a comment.

Before you know it, it’ll be time to get the Christmas decorations out, untangle the fairy lights, and deck the halls.

But one thing that might not put you in the festive spirit is the rising cost of living and how this might affect your ho-ho-holidays.

With everything from the cost of energy bills to the average weekly shop continually rising, many Brits may be concerned about how Christmas will impact their spending.

There are many ways families can save money on their bills going into winter, but many may not have accounted for how Christmas decorations stack up against other household appliances.

Here’s how much your home’s Christmas lights cost to run.

How much electricity do Christmas lights use?

While you can get solar and battery-powered Christmas lights, many rely on being plugged into the electricity mains to work, meaning they add to your bills.

How long you have your lights on and how many bulbs you have will affect the cost, but using nationwide averages can give you a rough idea.

According to Ideal Home, the typical UK family has their Christmas lights on for six hours per day.

On average a 100-count string of incandescent mini lights runs at 40 watts, and with most people using two strings, that adds up to 80 watts (W) or 0.08 kilowatts (kW).

If your lights were left on for six hours a day, with the electricity unit price now at 24.5p per kWh from October, that means the daily cost to run Christmas lights would be just under 12p per day.

This means that for a month, it would cost £3.53 to have Christmas lights on for six hours per day, based on the equation 0.48 (output over six hours per day) x 0.245 (cost) x 30 (days).

Bear in mind, this figure doesn’t include the 61p daily minimum standing charge, your other festive energy consumption, or your specific energy tariff.

If you want to cut costs on your decorations, using LED lights can dramatically cut your costs.

In fact, Martin Lewis claims that where incandescent lights cost 1p an hour per 100 bulbs, LED lights are far cheaper at around 1p every 12 hours for the same number of bulbs.

This article was first published on November 27, 2023.

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Thames Water customers are at risk of paying hundreds of pounds more a year to help save the debt-laden company, campaigners have claimed.

England’s largest water company, which has a debt of about £15billion, has said it will go bust by March if it is unable to raise £3,000,000,000,000.

Regulator Ofwat will decide on December 19 how much water providers like Thames Water can increase bills over the next five years.

Campaign groups have crunched the numbers and found that for Thames Water to secure enough funding to stay afloat, every household will have to cough up £263 more a year.

One in four people in the UK rely on Thames for their supply.

Matthew Topham, lead campaigner for We Own It, which campaigns against privatisation, told Metro: ‘Privatisation at Thames Water has led to a huge financial and sewage crisis. The shareholders and creditors are lurching from one emergency deal to another.

‘This latest plan could see a huge bailout fee added to household bills to prop up ongoing privatisation.

‘Instead, this moment gives the government the opportunity to take control of the crisis and protect the public and our rivers.’

The water industry is in hot water. Firms are facing backlash for polluting waterways by spewing sewage into rivers and streams after years of not investing in infrastructure.

Thames Water reported 359 category one to three pollution incidents in the six months to September 30, an increase of 40%.

The firm also pumped at least 72,000,000,000,000 litres of sewage into the River Thames between 2020 and November 2023.

Britons are sick of the sewage – literally, according to Surfers Against Sewage, a group that tracks water quality.

More than 1,900 people reported getting ill after entering the water last year – triple the number from the year before.

While Thames Water bosses received £770,000 in bonuses, the company has asked the public to foot the bill.

Thames Water has asked Ofwat to let it hike bills by 53% to £667 a year to make the firm more ‘investible’.

Whether Thames secures a financial lifeline – what it calls a ‘liquidity extension’ – will come down to two court dates this month and next.

The utility company’s debt, which has piled up since it privatised in 1989, will swell to £17,900,000,000 by the end of next March.

Thames Water said: ‘The proposed liquidity extension will not change what we are asking for in our draft determination response and the proposed increase in customer bills over the next five years.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Christmas prep is in full swing, but with the cost of living crisis continuing to grip the nation, this festive season may be a difficult one for many.

Rising costs of everything from energy bills to your weekly grocery shop means that many families across Britain are looking to cut costs where they can.

And with the big day on the not-so-distant horizon, that can prove to be quite tricky.

But how much does the average family spend at Christmas and where does that money go?

How much does the average family spend at Christmas?

It should come as no surprise that December is an expensive month for families.

The average household spends £2,500 monthly, with that total rising more than £700 in December according to the Bank of England (BoE).

The BoE says the average family spends an extra £740 in the run-up to Christmas, taking us to £3,240 – which works out at 29% extra.

This year, Finder estimates that Brits are expected to spend an average of £923 per person gifts, food, travel and socialising over the Christmas period, totalling to a huge £46.4 billion.

While the average spend on gifts per person in its research was £596, Millennials are set to fork out £871 each just on presents, and the figure for Londoners sits at a whopping £936.

What do families spend the most money on?

Data from the BoE found that things that only make up a small portion of our spending for 11 months of the year suddenly increase in December.

Spending on video and music equipment and books grows the most, from the average spend for the rest of the year of 0.23% skyrocketing to 95%.

Book sales also double in December, while sales for computers and phones rise from 1.1% to 61%.

What we spend on tasty treats also increases as families stock up on mulled wine and mince pies for their Christmas festivities.

Spending on food and alcohol goes up by an average of 20% and 38% respectively according to the data.

However, the run-up to Christmas does see families curb their spending in other areas.

Spending on goods such as paints and hardware goes down by 21%, as we delay these jobs until after the festive period.

This article was first published on November 27, 2022.

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‘Honestly shocking, the treats aisle is for the wealthy folk now.’

This is just one of the observations Metro readers sent in response to a viral Instagram Story about the price of chocolate in British and Irish supermarkets.

‘That’s actually robbery,’ another replied to a photo of an €8.50 Kinder egg in a Dublin Tesco, while a third described the surging cost of sweets as ‘outrageous.’

Anger over the cost of living is nothing new, but recent months have seen rage over the rocketing price of chocolate reach new highs. ‘Are you taking the p***?’ asked TikToker Megzy, when he spotted Cadbury Oreo bars had gone up by 50p at his local shop. ‘UK prices have gone too far,’ he added.

Under another video about Freddos, oli_little_juju wrote: ‘Comes with a mortgage at this point.’ Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg even referenced chocolate price hikes in a recent episode, calling it ‘sad’.

On X, Shanika_WM wrote: ‘Cost of living crisis is still out of control! How is a 90g bar of chocolate that used to be £1 now £1.50!!!?!

Another, halfofmyheart_0, said: ‘I hate that chocolate is so expensive now. As in ordinary chocolate???’

Chocolate has historically been recession-proof. In tough times, the downtrodden proletariat need sweet relief more than ever.

But it looks like these simplest of pleasures could be off the cards for many of us from now on, as the price of chocolate continues to soar to unprecedented levels.

The wholesale price of cocoa has seen a four-fold increase over the past year, with climate change being blamed for poor harvests in West Africa, where the majority of global producers are based.

Despite reduced supply, demand for chocolate is growing, resulting in prices peaking on the London Cocoa Futures in April at £9,648 a tonne.

This spike has been passed onto consumers, with Which? deeming chocolate prices the fastest rising of all food categories it researches — in a grim phenomenon dubbed ‘chocflation’.

Looking at the the nation’s favourite brand, Cadbury Dairy Milk, a standard size bar would have set you back 45p in the 90s. Nowadays, it’ll cost you upwards of £1.85.

Snickers and Mars bars set you back 25p before the millennium, and are now between 85p and £1, according to price comparison site Trolley.

And who could forget Freddo, which many joke is the canary in the coalmine of inflation. The iconic 18g chocolate frog was 10p for a long time, but now averages at 30p, a 200% increase since the halcyon days of the 90s.

While it’s not exactly a secret that things become more expensive over time, and an extra 20p here and there is hardly extortion, modern chocflation comes against a backdrop of decades-long wage stagnation, where people have less and less disposable cash.

And even though we’re still buying chocolate in our droves, it now costs more as a proportion of our earnings.

Currently, the average UK household spends 3.78% (£2.40) of its £63.50 a weekly food budget on chocolate. Compare this to 2001, when households spent £41.80 on food, 3.35% (£1.40) of which was on chocolate.

This is to do with something known as the ‘treat economy’, which you may have heard it referred to as the ‘lipstick effect’, after Leonard Lauder, chairman of Estée Lauder, claimed lipstick sales rose exponentially after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

The idea is that people still tend to buy small luxury items even during an economic downturn, as cash-strapped consumers want to treat themselves to something that lets them forget their financial problems.

It tracks when it comes to our current situation too. A TikTok trend where creators claim ‘If there’s one thing I deserve, it’s a little treat’ has swept the platform, with thousands of videos tagged #LittleTreat and #LittleTreatCulture.

Additionally a recent survey by Barclaycard revealed 47% of people have continued to indulge in minor luxuries even while trying to cut back on other expenses.

So what happens if these minor luxuries become unattainable for certain people? Does the growing price of chocolate mean we risk some Willy Wonka world where the Charlie Buckets in society rarely get to enjoy sweets?

Chocolate isn’t exactly essential, but sometimes things that seem insignificant can be indicators of wider culture.

Sociologist Jean Baudrillard argued what we buy says a lot about who we are; within what he called a ‘hierarchy of consumers’, those who can afford the goods at the top of the status pyramid are viewed in higher standing.

Anne Murcott, a professor and author specialising in the sociology of food, agrees, telling Metro: ‘Broadly, the type of foods and drinks people take are associated with class and income.

‘In part that is related to price in relation to disposable income. In part it is also cultural, insofar as it is possible to identify “working class cultures” or “habits and conventions of upper class life”.’

Like most things, these price rises may just pass the upper middle classes by (perhaps because they don’t notice the difference as much or because they consume fewer ‘here and now’ foods than other) while those who are less well off have their limited budgets stretched further.

Marta Pizzetti, Associate Professor of Marketing at Emlyon Business School, tells Metro: ‘Even though it’s not a necessity, it’s something that might be hard for consumer to give up and not buy anymore. So it’s likely that we’ll make sacrifices to buy these kind of products – maybe in smaller quantities – but still, we’re going to buy it.’

The industry itself will also be impacted, but it’s small businesses rather than mega corporations who’ll struggle to keep up.

‘Big organisations have much more power in the market, because they buy in big quantities,’ Marta explains. ‘Small businesses and craft chocolate artisans, who buy in smaller quantities are much more subject to price increases.’

Alongside purchasing power due to bulk ordering, she says: ‘Big companies have multiple programs in the regions where cocoa beans are sourced to improve the living conditions of farmers — this gives them a kind of reciprocity relationship where they might be facilitated in negotiating prices, or even with governments.’

For small businesses to compete, they may be able to leverage a trend towards higher quality chocolate among the middle and upper classes, who feel compelled to spend more as long as they’re assured what they’re buying is ‘better’.

Marta says that brand ‘storytelling’ and underscoring ethical or environmentally-friendly practices can ‘increase the willingness to pay for consumers,’ and maintain sales.

In the mass market, the solution is more complicated. It’s unlikely prices will go down, but rises could be limited with effort from manufacturers and retailers.

Mars Wrigley Confectionery’s 2023 profits were up almost 100% on the previous year at £206.2 million, with its shareholders being paid £600 million in dividends. Similarly, Cadbury owner Mondelēz saw more than doubled net earnings at $4.96 billion (£3.9 billion), reporting its best year ever and paying shareholders a nearly $3 billion (£2.36 billion) during the first nine months of 2024 alone.

We can’t know their margins, but it stands to reason that these industry giants could consider absorbing some extra costs rather than passing them onto consumers.

Even if this isn’t feasible, greater transparency can help people make better purchasing decisions, ensuring at the very least they don’t feel misled by tactics like shrinkflation.

According to Marta, retailers are often left out of these debates, despite having ‘much more power’ than consumers to change things.

European supermarket Carrefour, for example, began communicating product quality or size changes to consumers, which led to laws being passed in France and Italy requiring this information be made available to shoppers.

Whether companies will embrace this across the board remains to be seen. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look that likely.

The CEO of US snack food firm Hostess admitted in 2022 that rising prices across the economy ‘helps’ profit because they can raise prices to levels that exceed their increased costs. More recently, Nestle executives said that although it plans to curb huge increases going forward, they’ll continue ‘commensurate with what the consumer can take’.

Perhaps our golden ticket is to show the industry what we won’t take and stop putting our money where our mouths are — it’d be easy enough, if it wasn’t for thatrelentless sweet tooth.

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British Gas tried to stop a single mum from withdrawing £5,400 in credit after wrongly billing her £9,000.

Little had changed in the energy usage of Roxanne Pitteway and her four kids since they moved into their Cambridge home in 2015.

She paid the bills through direct debit and didn’t think much more about it, last taking a meter reading 17 months before.

But in November, after a rise in the energy price gap, British Gas recommended the 39-year-old’s monthly payment increase from £250 to £460.

Price hikes often seem extortionate, but not as much as what came next.

Roxanne said: ‘I went on the live chat to ask them if this was right and that I was using this much more energy as it seemed quite a jump.

‘They asked me to send them a meter reading to check and said it [the direct debit] was coming up as this because I was £9,000 in debt.

‘I said “wow” and asked them to check this because it seemed quite a lot and felt like they should have told me beforehand if I was in this much debt.

‘They said it was correct, which is why they had to up my direct debit.

‘I am a single parent and have four children so it was a bit of a shock and obviously would impact what I would be spending over Christmas and your monthly budget.’

Although Roxanne could afford the hit to her budget, an extra £200 plus thousands in debt is ‘enough to absolutely destroy some people’.

But Roxanne wasn’t convinced. She said: ‘There had been no real change in the way we use our energy.

‘I asked them to double check and they came back and said there had been a mistake at their end. [British Gas] told me I had £5,400 in credit.’

Instead of being £9,000 in debt, British Gas actually owed Roxanne thousands.

But when she asked for this money back, she says British Gas tried to dissuade her.

Roxanne said: ‘I asked for this to be refunded but they advised me not to as you build up an excess over summer to pay for fuel in winter.

‘British Gas asked me if I could afford this and I said yes. They said if I did receive the refund they would have to put my direct debit up to £700.’

Eventually the £5,462.16 landed back in her account on November 26, and Roxanne has since switched energy provider, despite British Gas offering her a better rate to stay.

A spokesperson for Centrica, on behalf of British Gas, said: ‘Mrs Pitteway’s bills were being estimated for some time.

‘When she contacted us on 19th November we took a meter reading, billed her up-to-date and then informed her of the large credit balance.

‘Our advisor processed the refund on the same day – this was then received in Mrs Pitteway’s bank account within 3-5 working days on 26 November.’

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So to help UK households keep costs down but still enjoy the magic of the festive season, Martin Lewis has a handy tip.

Because although your loved ones’ faces as they bask in the glow of twinkly Christmas lights may be priceless, the resulting energy bill can be positively pricey.

In the latest edition of his newsletter, the Money Saving Expert founder revealed how one easy switch can slash the running costs of your Christmas lights by a massive amount.

‘We’ve crunched the numbers to see how much those sparkly lights actually cost,’ says Martin. ‘And the big difference is whether they’re LED lights or incandescent.’

Whereas incandescent lights cost 1p an hour per 100 bulbs, LED lights are far cheaper at around 1p every 12 hours for the same number of bulbs.

Breaking it down, the financial guru continues: ‘If you run a 100-bulb string of LED lights (which uses 3W of energy) for six hours a day for a month it’ll cost roughly 15p.

‘For incandescent bulbs (which use 40W of energy) it’s roughly £1.80. Bigger sets of lights, with more bulbs, would use more energy and cost more.’

To work out your exact running costs, find the wattage for your lights then multiply this by 24.5p — the current electricity Price Cap. Next, multiply the number of hours you plan to have them on and divide by 1,000 (since there are 1,000 watts in a kilowatt).

You can usually find the wattage on the packaging for your lights, but if you’ve chucked the box, there’s another way to check whether you’ve got LED or the more expensive incandescent.

‘Check if the bulbs are glass or plastic,’ the MSE newsletter explains. ‘Incandescent lights are usually made of glass and get hot when they’ve been left on for a while. You may also be able to see a filament inside. LEDs are generally made of plastic and are cool to touch.’

The potential savings all depend on the number of lights you have and how long you have them on, but hold your horses before throw out all your decorations.

Martin highlights that while LED is a cheaper option when it comes to energy usage, you still need to factor in the price of replacing older incandescent lights.

He says: ‘You’d likely save in the long-run if you’re planning to use the lights year after year, as LED lights also last a lot longer (up to 50 times) than incandescent bulbs and are cheaper to run.

‘But if you’ve incandescent bulbs, and money’s tight this Christmas, you’re likely better rationing how often you turn the Christmas lights on than shelling out to replace them.’

That’s not the only way to cut your bills this Christmas though. MSE also recommends the following changes, along with plenty more which you can find on its website:

• Keep doors closed. ‘It’ll help keep the heat in, and means your central heating doesn’t have to work as hard,’ advises Martin.
• Line your curtains. If you need new curtains anyway, consider lined ones. If not, you can get your hands on cheap fleece blankets for as little as £2 each and line them yourself to ensure no heat is lost through the windows.
• Hang curtains inside. You’ll probably need some basic DIY knowledge to do this, but hanging curtains on interior doors can help stop warmth escaping between rooms.
• Clingfilm your windows. While it may seem strange, ‘putting a sheet of clingfilm on your windows can trap a small layer of air’ as a kind of homemade draught excluder. This is best suited for those with single glazed windows, and you can use any transparent and airtight material.
• Invest in an energy monitor. For around £15, an energy monitor cangive you information on how much electricity an appliance uses, and is worthwhile if you want to keep track.
• Let the sun shine in. During the day, make sure you open your curtains and blinds to make the most of the sun’s warmth. Just remember to close them again when it gets dark.

Each of these changes on their own are unlikely to make a huge amount of difference to your spending. When combined, however, they definitely can.

Who said you have to wait until January to get into better habits?

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