London, December 3 (RHC)-- The high cost of living crisis in the United Kingdom has prompted Britons in some cities eat to pet food. British media is reporting that people were “eating pet food” because they can’t afford real food anymore.
According to the report, parts of Wales were hit so hard by poverty that people were forced to stoop to the lowest levels to just feed their families. One community worker noted that people are heating food using a radiator or a candle due to huge energy costs.
The reports come after new Census data suggests six of Wales’ most deprived communities are in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Last month, food costs rose again, with shop prices of groceries over 12 percent higher than a year before, according to the report.
"I’m still shocked by the fact that we have people who are eating pet food,” Mark Seed, who runs a community food project in Trowbridge east Cardiff, told the BBC. Seed noted that nowadays British households that were struggling to survive could be found in areas beyond the regions that were long associated with poverty. He said to tackle the poverty, the government needed to change its policy to focus on people and not places.
“Cardiff is a flourishing city however there are pockets of deprivation which are simply not acceptable,” he said. The charity officials say people were not being paid enough to afford the essentials as the cost of living crisis is pushing prices way up.
Official government statistics indicate the UK's inflation rose to a 41-year high of above eleven percent. The UK government continues to blame the war in Ukraine and the COVID pandemic as the main factors behind the economic downturn.