THE cost of greed has left almost two million households in Britain unable afford enough food for everyone in their home and more than eight million who would be unable to cope with an emergency £850 bill, new figures suggest.

Research carried out for Carnegie UK’s annual Life in the UK Index has indicated that 28 per cent of the country’s 28 million households would risk being plunged into debt by such an unavoidable one-off expense, while 12 per cent cannot afford to socialise once a month.

The index also revealed the price being paid by the people for years of stagnating wages and soaring energy and food costs, with 6 per cent unable to afford to feed their whole household, and comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham begins his summer cost-of-living tour this week.

Carnegie’s figures also show a deterioration on all three fronts every year since the index began in 2023, a situation that the public policy foundation’s director of policy, insight and advocacy Adam Lang called “disappointing but not surprising.”

He said: “Our data shows that too many people remain unable to afford essentials, cope with unexpected costs, or participate fully in society.

“Prime Minister Andy Burnham has the right ambition, and we welcome his focus on the cost of living.

“However, there are no quick fixes for tackling inequality in our society.

“Meaningful change will require sustained action, collaboration across government, and a commitment to measuring what matters to households and communities.

“Economic indicators such as inflation, wage growth and GDP tell us important things about the economy, but they do not tell us about people’s lives and whether people are able to live well.

“If governments are serious about improving people’s lives, they must track outcomes that matter to people and use that evidence to guide long-term policy decisions.”

As the survey of 6,731 people revealed that 23 per cent could not afford to take a week’s annual holiday, up two percentage points in just one year, Mr Burnham has returned from his own to begin a tour of the country in “listening mode” to learn about the cost of living.

He pledged to look at “everyday fixes” to build on the VAT cut on domestic fuel and “pull every single lever we can to provide people with some room to breathe on the cost of living.”

Mr Burnham will also accelerate plans to tackle “subscription traps” by making it easier to cancel them and force companies to provide more information about costs up-front rather than quietly auto-renewing them at a higher price.

The changes had been announced by his predecessor in April with a plan to bring them into force by spring 2027, but they will now be in force from January.

Announcing he would also consult on adding deceptive discount offers to the Competition and Markets Authority’s list of banned practices, the Prime Minister said: “I know people are sick and tired of rip-off discounts and subscription traps.

“Westminster has got used to telling people that everyday hassles like this are just part of life.

“I don’t think that’s right, especially when the cost of living continues to weigh heavily on so many people’s lives.”

A TUC spokesperson said: “Households up and down the country are still under the cosh.

“That’s why it’s welcome that Andy Burnham has prioritised cost-of-living measures in his first few weeks.

“But the government is going to have to keep going with action on the cost of living — especially with no clear end in sight to the war in Iran and energy prices set to rise further.

“With the big banks raking it in from high interest rates, it’s time to tax bank profits to cut household energy bills.”

While Citizens Advice chief executive Dame Clare Moriarty welcomed the subscription proposals which the government has claimed could save households £14 a month, socialist MP Jeremy Corbyn called for a deeper look at the root causes of the crisis.

“Millions of people are struggling while private companies rake it in,” he told the Star.

“That is not a cost-of-living crisis. That is a cost-of-greed crisis.”

Mr Bunham argued his proposals were “just the start” of a plan to tackle yawning inequality and soaring poverty.

But Mr Corbyn offered his one-time Labour colleague some advice: “There is only one way we can tackle these obscene levels of inequality: ending the disaster of privatisation and putting essential services like energy and water back into public ownership.

“We will not lift people out of poverty unless we tackle the root cause of their impoverishment: a grotesquely unequal economic system that diverts wealth away from the majority toward an elite few.”