The Squeeze

Inflation up, food prices up, fuel costs up, mortgages up, and yet they call it a DOWN-turn.  We're not officially in a recession yet but we wanted to find out if the effects of this "downturn" were already being felt by ordinary people. 

We chose "Pound" Road in East Peckham, and went in search of people in that road willing to tell us about how the effects of the slump were affecting the "Pound" in their pocket.

Living with less

Mother of two, Rachel Penfold has lived with her husband and family in Pound Road for the last four years. She says that food had gone up so much that she had changed her supermarket:

Pensioner Evelyn Smith has lived alone in Pound Road for the last 10 years. Evelyn told Ian Harkness how the economic squeeze has forced her to take a part-time job to stop her going into the red. She's also been feeling the pinch over her mounting gas and electricity bills:

Emma Wilkinson has lived in Pound Road with her husband Alan for the last five years. She works from home selling software to the financial services industry and saw the present financial crisis coming about nine months ago:

Mum of three, Benita Gregory and her husband Brett have lived in Pound Road for the last nine years. Benita explains why she's worried for her pension, how she's been making sacrifices and how she's been turning her hands to gardening to save on the family food bill:

Maxine Howes bought a newly built property in Pound Road on a mortgage four years ago. Maxine now needs to renew her mortgage which is coming to the end of its four year term and she's worried about how much extra a new one is going to cost. Maxine is having to make ends meet mainly on a state pension and describes her number one worry: