Andy Burnham must act to help families who are breaking under the weight of Net Zero policy costs

ANDY Burnham will enter Downing Street with a nightmare in-tray. 

Defence, the economy, the NHS, housing, public services – all of it is in dire need of attention.

But while Westminster gets giddy over the excitement of changing Prime Ministers, in the real world, families have bigger things to worry about.

I visit Iceland stores up and down the country and people tell me they are looking at the bills on the kitchen table and wondering what hits them next.

My advice to Andy Burnham is to ignore the excitement around Parliament and be ready from day one, because an inflation freight train is about Britain this autumn.

The new PM must have a battle plan to fight the cost of living crisis. If he doesn’t, his promises to change the country and improve lives will lie in tatters.

I have spent the past five months as the Government’s Cost of Living Champion and I have delivered the outgoing PM Sir Keir Starmer a practical plan to help Brits.

There is no single magic bullet, there never was. But there are measures ready to go now that would make a real difference before winter.

We need to lower crippling energy bills, action on household energy debt, stronger routes into affordable credit, better access to social tariffs, tougher rules on rip-off subscription traps, and helping young people find Child Trust Fund money that is already theirs.

I know The Sun on Sunday readers want action not words. 

So let me be blunt: the biggest test is energy. 

We cannot keep loading Net Zero policy costs onto household bills and then act surprised when families break under the weight. 

Green levies and wider policy costs should be taken off bills. If No10 wants to pursue policies, it should be funded more fairly through general taxation. 

That would cut costs directly, reduce inflationary pressure and give households visible relief.

But I think Andy Burnham should go further.

He simply must push back the 2030 Net Zero target. 

I don’t say that lightly, I’m an environmentalist and I support the need to meet our climate commitments. But any roadmap that punishes households and small businesses will lose public consent. 

Net Zero cannot be built on unaffordable bills. We need a new plan that keeps faith with the destination while being honest about the cost of the journey.

That is why I believe Ed Miliband would be a disaster as Chancellor. He is too ideological and zealous in his pursuit of Net Zero. 

Mr Burnham should seize this moment to reset our Net Zero policies so targets are not achieved on the back of struggling families. 

At Iceland, we do everything we can to keep costs down for our customers – and that is why they have kept the faith with us for over 50 years.

The UK has been living in the eye of the cost of living storm for some years now, and things will get worse later this year. 

Winter is coming, and the new PM must do everything he can to fight the crisis if he wants the country to keep the faith with him.