- Like much of the UK, Scotland is experiencing a cost-of-living crisis.
- First Minister Nicola Sturgeon just announced a freeze on rent payments and train fares.
Scotland's cost-of-living crisis is pushing its first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, to take drastic measures, bringing rent payments to a halt, as well as train fares.
Sturgeon, who announced on Tuesday that the country will be instituting a rent freeze and eviction moratorium in order to combat skyrocketing energy prices in the country, called the hike in costs a "humanitarian crisis."
Rents will be fixed at £2,500 a month, Sky News reported. That's roughly $2,900.
The cost-of-living situation is dire in much of the UK, especially in parts of Scotland — some people are paying as much as $7,500 in energy bills per year in the country. The gap between the highest and lowest fuel bills is set to double between now and January 2023, The Herald reported last month. It's because of wholesale gas prices rising over the past year due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with Russia squeezing the flow of natural gas to the rest of Europe and hurting other countries' economies as a result.
"We will take immediate action to protect tenants in the private and social renting sectors," Ms Sturgeon said.
Sturgeon, who is a member of her country's Scottish National Party, which considers itself to be social democratic, also said that Scotland's train fares will be frozen until March of next year, and that the Scottish child payment will increase to £25 a week per child for low-income families from November, about $28 dollars. That's after doubling the weekly allowance from £10 to £20 just in April.
Sturgeon has repeatedly cautioned in the past against a rise in the cap for energy prices, and has urged Liz Truss, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to freeze them.
"She must now freeze energy bills for people and businesses, deliver more cash support, and increase funding for public services," Sturgeon wrote on Twitter yesterday about Truss.
Rent freezes were never automatic or widespread in the United States at any point in the pandemic, but eviction moratoria and rental assistance programs helped more than a million American households avoid losing their homes, according to Princeton University's Eviction Lab.
"The Scottish Government does not have the power to stop your energy bills soaring, but we can and will take action to make sure that your rent does not rise," Sturgeon said.