JEFF PRESTRIDGE: Tighten belts for a stormy autumn

Fall has arrived – and it won’t be financially pleasing for most of our glorious readers. Despite Liz Truss’ rally speech at the Conservative Party Conference in the beautiful city of Birmingham (yes, a beautiful place to live) last Wednesday, let’s not beat around the bush.

As a nation, we are on the right track. Rising fuel bills (yes, the discounts are very welcome Prime Minister); the threat of interrupted power supply; rising mortgage costs (terrifying for those taking out a fixed-rate loan); and raging inflation are challenges that will test our financial courage in the coming months.

Many household finances will be stretched to their limits — and in some cases beyond that.

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers or solutions. Putin’s determination to destroy Ukraine, in the same way his bombs razed Syria, means that high energy prices will continue to be a formidable hurdle to restoring economic growth – and financial stability.

And while the government’s turnaround on tax cuts for the wealthy has been welcome, Truss and her Lieutenant Kwasi Kwarteng have yet to convince financial markets that this is a conservative government determined to keep the country’s precarious finances in check.

Political dogma, rather than financial pragmatism, has so far dominated Truss’s premiership.

There are many who believe that Truss should be mandated for her bold political agenda by calling for a general election. It’s a vision that has merit – there are fears that until 2024 her government will do nothing more than stumble and jump from crisis to crisis.

What to do with benefits is the next question that awaits her: to link increases to inflation or not? Annoying. Very hard.

Of course it would be a bold move to call an election (many believe the Conservatives have a spell in the wilderness). But it would at the very least require Starmer’s Labor to reveal their cards.

Until now, we’ve been told little more than an economic recovery plan based on greening our homes. What about their tax plans? wealth tax? Higher income tax for Central Englanders? Increase business taxes?

Set against Truss’ agenda – economic growth driven by lower taxes – Labor’s recipe for economic rejuvenation may not look so appetizing.

Tighten your belts, readers. Autumn storms and power cuts are coming. It’s time to stock candles, I’m afraid.

Not much to save from train wreck funeral plan

We have yet to be told what money managers managed to salvage from the train wreck that failed, funeral plan provider Safe Hands. Not much, that’s for sure, and certainly not enough to ease the pain 46,000 plan holders (many elderly) have suffered as a result of the cancellation of the prepaid funeral plan they bought in good faith.

While Dignity and Co-op offer Safe Hands victims low-cost funeral plans, I trust this financial scandal should not be quietly swept under the rug.

As I reported earlier this year, there were many financial abuses at Safe Hands. The trust fund – where clients’ money was kept – was looted to pay dividends to directors. Also, upon the company’s death, most of the money in the trust fund had mysteriously shifted to untraceable offshore investments. Those involved in this financial travesty must now be held accountable for their actions – especially Richard Wells, the owner of Safe Hands at the time the company collapsed.

Despite the dark clouds hanging over Wells’ head, he remains as brazen as copper. A fast car enthusiast, he will race in the British Automobile Racing Club Car Championships on October 22 at Donington Park, Leicestershire. Fast money, fast cars.

A number of disadvantaged holders of a Safe Hands plan hope, I am told, to be there to express their feelings peacefully. As someone told me on Friday, “It seems outrageous that he is going to enjoy his rich man’s sport when the money we entrusted to Safe Hands has disappeared from the face of the earth.”

Of course, justice must prevail.