Ed Balls MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, responding to today’s GDP figures, said:

“Now that growth has finally returned, the question is whether ordinary working people will properly feel the benefit and we have a balanced recovery that’s built to last.

“David Cameron and George Osborne want to tell people the cost-of-living crisis is over, but millions of hardworking people are still feeling no recovery at all.

“Under this government, wages after inflation are down by over £1,600 a year. On top of this, tax and benefit changes will leave families almost £1,000 a year worse off by the time of the next election.

“And with business investment still weak, infrastructure output down and housing demand outstripping housing supply, this is not yet a recovery that is built to last.

“Labour’s plan will ensure we earn our way to higher living standards for all, not just a few at the top, and secure a strong and balanced recovery that is built to last.

“We will freeze energy bills, reform the banks, cut business rates, get 200,000 new homes built a year and expand free childcare to make work pay.

“And where this Government has failed on the deficit, we will balance the books in the next Parliament in a fairer way – including by reversing this Tory-led government’s £3 billion tax cut for the top one per cent of earners.”