Government and leading businesses join forces to help households with cost of living

Retail deals and discounts to help families over the summer holidays have been announced as part of the government’s Help for Households Campaign.

Signed with some of the UK’s biggest businesses, including Asda, Morrisons, Amazon and Vodafone, these deals are designed to reduce costs at the checkout, help provide entertainment and ensure access to necessary services for families during the summer holidays and beyond.

Agreed with the government’s Cost of Living Business Tsar David Buttress, the deals include the extension of Asda’s ‘Kids eat for £1’ scheme, where children aged 16 and under can access a hot or cold meal for £1 at any time of day in Asda Cafes across the UK.

Sainsbury’s is introducing it’s ‘feed your family for a fiver’ campaign, helping customers with budget-friendly meal ideas to feed a family of four for less than £5.

Theatres in London are uniting for Kids Week, an initiative giving children the chance to see a West End show for free throughout August with a full paying adult, with half price tickets for two additional children in the same group, while Vodafone is promoting a mobile social tariff of £10 a month.

Along with new initiatives, some deals are a continuation of successful support schemes which businesses are already running and want to promote under the Help for Households campaign to raise awareness.

These include Amazon’s new ‘help for households’ page that will provide access to free entertainment such as Freevee and Amazon Music, as well as educational resources for school-aged children and low-price essential groceries. Morrisons is also providing a free meal for every child at in-store cafes when a parent buys an adult meal.

These deals form the first part of the Help for Household retail campaign which will aim to provide deals for families over four distinct periods –the summer holidays, back to school, Autumn pressures and Christmas retail – with deals secured and hosted on the government’s new Help for Households website so that people can find them easily in one place.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said:

We’re facing incredibly tough global economic headwinds and families across the country are feeling the pinch.

That’s why this government is providing an unprecedent £37bn worth of support to help households through the storm.

Both the public and private sector have a role to play here – and that’s why it’s great to see so many leading UK businesses are now coming forward to offer new deals and discounts that will provide much needed respite at the checkout.

This won’t solve the issue overnight but it’s yet another weapon in our arsenal as we fight back against scourge of rising prices and inflation.

To mark the launch of the bespoke cost of living deals, the Prime Minister and David Buttress will host a meeting of senior business leaders involved in the campaign in No10 tomorrow [Thursday] to thank the businesses involved and discuss new ideas for cutting the cost of living.

Attendees are likely to include representatives from Sainsburys, Vodafone, Amazon, Centrica and the CBI.

Cost of Living Business Tsar David Buttress will also thank businesses for their support and praise the campaign’s “good start” while making clear that “we’ve got more to do and more deals to announce – not just over the summer holidays but when kids return to school and in the run up to Christmas when costs are typically higher”.

These deals build on the £37bn package of Help for Households already being provided by government – including tax cuts and help towards energy, childcare and transport costs.

The government’s online cost of living support pages, which have been visited over 2.2 million times, are helping the public to access the panoply of different cost of living support schemes available across government. 90% of users have said that they find the site helpful.

John Boumphrey, UK Country Manager, Amazon said:

We are proud to be part of the Government’s ‘Help for Households’ campaign, as we continue to support our customers across the UK with great value and convenience.

In fact, today we’ve launched a brand-new page on amazon.co.uk which shows you how to access free or discounted products and services from Amazon.

This includes free entertainment for all, learning resources for students, along with more details of how else customers can save online.

We will continue to offer the widest selection of products at the best possible prices, with many of these products sold by the 85,000 small and medium-sized UK businesses who use Amazon to reach customers here and around the world.

Simon Roberts, Chief Executive Officer at Sainsbury’s, said:

The rising cost of living is at the forefront of customers’ minds, so we are delighted that our Feed your family for a fiver campaign is part of the initiative, helping people save money when it matters most.

We have invested over half a billion pounds since March 2021 to ensure the items customers buy most often are on the shelves at the best prices. We are keeping inflation lower than our peers and we stand side by side with colleagues too – in April Sainsbury’s became the first major retailer to pay all our colleagues the Living Wage.

Hayley Tatum, Asda’s Chief Corporate Affairs and People Officer, said:

Our latest Asda Income Tracker shows that families are on average £175 worse off per month compared to this time last year and many are finding it increasingly tough to make ends meet.

We want to do all we can to support families during these tough times which is why we’re pleased to support the ‘Help for Households’ initiative and have today launched our Essential Living Hub where families can find hints and tips from a range of experts about how to make their budgets go further, including details of our Kids Eat for £1’ offer, which we’re pleased to confirm will be extended to all cafes across the UK until the end of the year.

Association of Convenience Stores Chief Executive, James Lowman, said:

The UK’s 47,000 local shops play an incredibly important role in helping consumers to manage their money, save on fuel and other travel costs, and reduce food waste.

We strongly welcome the new Help for Households campaign, and are committed to working with the cost of living tsar David Buttress to highlight how convenience stores are supporting both customers and colleagues during this challenging time for everyone.

Many convenience store retailers are providing significant staff discounts and other benefits as part of extra support packages for colleagues in store, as well as doing everything they can to keep prices on the shelf in check despite rising costs in just about every area of their businesses.

Ahmed Essam, CEO at Vodafone UK, said:

Vodafone is proud to support the ‘Help for Households’ campaign that raises awareness and offers support to individuals and families most impacted by the cost of living challenge. Vodafone offers VOXI For Now, which is the only mobile social tariff to help those experiencing financial hardship stay connected, as well as our everyone.connected campaign to provide free connectivity to one million people living in digital poverty by the end of 2022.