we start with the soaring cost of living because prices here in the uk are now rising at the fastest rate in a0 years. the annual rate of inflation hit 9% in april up from 7% in march, driven bya bigjump in energy bills. britain s finance minister, chancellor of the exchequer, rishi sunak is warning of tougher times ahead as pressure grows on him to take action. our economics editor faisal islam has more. when prices rise this fast it hits everyone, the fracture seen on every street, office and household in the country, including in lancashire. she recently ran her business, after the pandemic she finds money running out as bills get more expensive and even essential things become too expensive. essential things become too “pensive- expensive. gas and electric because i expensive. gas and electric because i got expensive. gas and electric because i got in expensive. gas and electric because i got in arrears - because i got in arrears because i got in arrears beca
joining me now is martin alcock. from the pandemic to a cost of living crisis this industry has gone from the frying pan and into the fire. how resilient is demand for travel given the squeeze we ve already seen on budgets and what we re being told is to come? good morning, a tough few years, hasn t it? i think the results that will come out later this morning, i think the best way i would expect them to best way i would expect them to be is cautiously optimistic. we have had a couple, busy couple of weeks from operators and airlines and there are consistent themes coming through, some bookings are looking very strong, starting to see demand returning, back to see demand returning, back to pre pandemic levels, easyjet last time they announced would talk about this year bring back to 2019 levels, what they are seeing is pricing strong, customers having to pay a lot but that is helping cut
thanksgiving at least. take a look at the numbers right now where we are. fortunately looks like we ve hit a peak when it comes to gas prices. it s $3.40 the average gallon of regular right now. that is down a penny from what it was last week. we ve got as high as $3.44, a little bit earlier. so the thought is yeah, we peaked and now with the spr news, the strategic petroleum oil release, maybe it will come down more. but people are now planning to cut travel. they surveyed gas buddy customers that said 32% are intending to travel this thanksgiving. that s compared to 35% that were planning to travel by road this time last year and 65% of course before the pandemic. so they think it s going to have a chilling effect. over at aaa though, they told us they don t think so.
has gone home. resigned or place on leave. governor watchdog is saying i told you so. the gsa scandal is symbolic of waste in washington. which unfortunately, is alive and well. this show that the era of big government is far from over. barack obama put his vice president in charge of tracking down waste and fraud in government. the white house claims billions in savings. prevented $20 billion in improper payments and put in the contracting cost to exceed the goal of reducing contract spending by $40 billion. some agencies, spending is still seen as entitlement. no one sends 30 people out and spends $40,000 to look at a hotel to see if it s adequate for subsequent conference. the private sector cut back on travel. congress cut it own budget. cut travel across the board, 10%. the agencies have to do more.