MPs across the patch have responded to news the Chancellor will provide help with the cost-of-living crisis.

Rishi Sunak announced yesterday all UK households will get a grant of £400 from October, in a bid to help reduce ever-rising energy bills.

Originally, the grants were set to be £200 with a requirement they also be repaid, but that aspect of the deal has been cancelled. 

The discount will be made directly by your energy supplier.

There will also be an additional £650 payment to low-income families who receive Universal Credit, tax credit, pension credit and other means-tested benefits.

Households in receipt of the Winter Fuel Payment will also receive an additional £300 in November or December.

Weaver Vale MP Mike Amesbury said it was “a step in the right direction” that the Government had finally responded for calls to do more.

He said: “The package of measures announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak is largely in response to Labour’s call for the Government to do more. I welcome that he has finally adopted my party’s suggestion of a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers to fund this support. 

“It’s a step in the right direction but it should also be about helping industry and agriculture as well because these sectors, employing many of my constituents, face spiralling costs. 

“In my role as MP, I visit foodbanks in Northwich and across my constituency where I thank volunteers for generously giving up their time to support others. But I look forward to the day when foodbanks no longer exist, and I don’t have to thank those hard-working volunteers anymore.

“People were already struggling, and the cost-of-living crisis means it’s getting worse. Many of the folk using foodbanks are in low paid jobs, with families to feed, who simply cannot make ends meet.”

Edward Timpson CBE, the MP for Eddisbury said the last few years had been unprecedented and that the pandemic had severely damaged the global economy.

He added: "Due to a series of global forces—economies reopening following the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and a fresh wave of lockdowns in China—families and businesses are being hit here at home through a significant rise in inflation and therefore everyday prices.

"While it is impossible for any government to solve every problem, the priority today is to help the millions of families struggling with the cost of living, including here in Cheshire.

“We are doing this today through a £15 billion package which will support the most vulnerable one-third of households with £1,200 each.

"We are providing £9 billion of targeted support to the most vulnerable households—including Eddisbury pensioners—and supporting hard-working families with £6 billion to help with energy bills.

"In total we are providing over £37 billion of support to help families with the cost of living.

"This forms part of our plan for a stronger national economy and a stronger Cheshire economy—creating jobs, cutting taxes on working people, reducing borrowing and debt, driving businesses to invest and innovate, unleashing a skills revolution, seizing the benefits of Brexit, and levelling up growth throughout the UK."