Cost-of-Living Crisis: Consumer Resilience and Stakeholder Interventions

The main aim of this project was to explore consumer resilience during the cost-of-living crisis and the scope for various stakeholders to co-create solutions to help consumers cope with the crisis. A cost-of-living crisis occurs when disposable incomes in a significant number of households are no longer sufficient to cover essential needs for food, heating, transportation and a minimum level of leisure activity. Scotland, and indeed the rest of the UK, is currently experiencing an enduring cost of-living crisis which started in 2021 when a rapid rise in inflation caused prices on food, energy and other essentials to rise dramatically. Within the span of just one year, consumer price inflation increased by more than 10%. Whilst inflation is currently falling, it would be ill-informed to draw the conclusion that we are no longer in a cost-of-living crisis.