BRITAIN urgently needs a pay rise, trade union leaders demanded today as inflation hit a new 30-year high, deepening the nation’s “brutal” cost-of-living crisis.

Consumer prices rose by 5.5 per cent in the 12 months to January, up from 5.4 per cent in December, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).  

This is the highest level seen since March 1992, when inflation stood at 7.1 per cent. 

The ONS said that the increasing cost of clothes, footwear, housing and household services, including energy bills, along with furniture and household goods, all pushed up inflation in January. 

Ordinary people face a triple whammy of rising costs this spring, with household energy bills expected to increase by almost £700 on average on top of tax hikes and runaway inflation. 

As inflation continues to far outstrip wage growth, which stood at 3.7 per cent in December, trade unions ramped up calls for the government to give public-sector workers a pay rise. 

Unison general secretary Christina McAnea described the latest inflation data as the “stuff of nightmares.”

She warned: “If there’s no extra cash for inflation-beating wage rises, health, care, council, police and education services could lose so many staff they’ll no longer be able to deliver for the public.”

Unite highlighted that the cost of living squeeze is hitting low and middle-income households while “profits rain down in boardrooms.” 

General secretary Sharon Graham said: “Where employers can pay, they should pay.

“We are fed up of rich men telling workers they have to pay for boardroom greed and colossal market failure.

“Unite will continue to demand significant pay increases to combat this brutal cost-of-living crisis because we must restore some fairness to working life in the UK.”

GMB general secretary Gary Smith accused the government of having lost control.

“They’ve overseen a shambolic energy strategy that has left us with no gas storage, a regressive green poll tax on poorly paid workers and wind turbines built on the other side of the world instead of here at home,” he said. 

“But bosses be warned: GMB members aren’t taking it lying down, they are taking on employers and winning the big pay rises they deserve.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said that the way out of the cost-of-living crisis was by raising the minimum wage to £10 and funding “real pay rises” across the public sector. 

“This will boost household spending, helping businesses recover and creating conditions for wage growth across the economy,” she said. 

With inflation expected to rise over the coming months, the Resolution Foundation warned that Britons could face the deepest squeeze on living standards in 60 years. 

Protesters are set to target the Tory conference in Blackpool next month to demand action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.

The TUC said it expects thousands of people to rally outside the conference centre on March 19. 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak defended the government response to high inflation, saying the Treasury would provide households with up to £350, in the form of council tax rebates and a state-paid discount on bills, to help with rising energy bills. 

But Labour accused the government of failing to tackle the cost of living squeeze, saying more action should have been taken to mitigate the impact of the crisis.  

“Instead, the Chancellor’s buy now pay later scheme on energy bills loads up debt for future years, while his tax rises will only make matters worse,” said shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden. 

Labour has called for a windfall tax on oil giants’ profits to offset the huge hike in energy bills facing consumers this spring. But this idea has so far been rejected by the government.