After a summer of drawn-out mudslinging and manoeuvring a million miles from the realities of the lives of ordinary Glaswegians, the Tory leadership campaign is over.

With a mandate of just 80,000 hard-right supporters and a few dozen of her fellow MPs – and with the cost-of-living crisis escalating daily – we’ve ended up, as expected, with Liz Truss as Prime Minister.

In the months in which Ms Truss has toured the Shires with her Thatcher worship and promises of tax cuts for the wealthy, the UK Government has been in a state of virtual paralysis.

The new PM enters Downing Street with an in-tray unlike any of her predecessors in modern times, all of which points towards social and economic calamity.

But Ms Truss – and in reality only Ms Truss – has the powers and resource to slow the momentum of this crisis and provide the protection tens of millions of households are relying upon. We’ll know her plans soon enough. I fear though, that without radical and far-reaching interventions surpassing even that of the pandemic support, that Ms Truss’s first actions as PM may not even touch the sides of this situation.

A look at the situation here in Glasgow gives a sense of how fast-moving and severe this crisis is. The latest information from Glasgow City Region’s Intelligence Hub, which provides up-to-the-minute social and economic data, makes for grim reading.

Across Greater Glasgow, it’s estimated that in the months ahead 190,000 households won’t be able to afford heating, 285,000 households will cut spending on essentials and 95,000 will have to rely on credit to get by.

By January almost 80% of income-poor households will also be fuel-poor. That’s an extra 107,000 households in Glasgow city alone.

For a family maintaining their typical use, spending on energy this year will cost £3478 compared with £1472 in the previous 12 months. Shockingly, for our poorest households spending on energy will cost an average of £4000.

Almost half of businesses are expecting to cut back on their operations this year, as people’s disposable income plummets and overheads soar. Hospitality, retail and construction all took major hits during the pandemic and now face another existential crisis. But this time, unless there is a major shift in UK policy, they do so without government support, forcing the employers of many thousands of Glaswegians into a deeply perilous place.

One of Ms Truss’s first actions must be to freeze fuel bills. But the impact of energy costs is already happening and freezing at current rates will help very few. A freeze needs to be backdated to at least autumn last year to be of any real benefit to household incomes.

This is not a time for pandering to the ideological needs of the Tory hardcore or tinkering round the edges of policy and support. The storm isn’t incoming. It’s here. Liz Truss must act with urgency and gravity to address this looming catastrophe.

Putting money directly into the pockets of those who need it most has an immediate impact on addressing poverty. So I was very pleased and relieved to hear the First Minister announce the Scottish Child Payment is increasing to £25 per week and extended to 16-year-olds.

Since its introduction last year, 23,000 Glasgow families have benefitted, with almost £14m paid out in the city. The public and private sector rent freeze too will have significant impact in supporting Glasgow households, where higher numbers of people than elsewhere in Scotland rent their homes.

At the city council, we’re progressing with plans to provide Welcoming Places for residents during the winter months, facilities where residents can enjoy warmth and comfort but also activities and access to other services.

This is a new kind of intervention and it won’t be something everyone wants to take up, so we’ll also be working with partners to provide other types of assistance that best suits the needs of individuals and families as best we can.

What we really want is for every resident of Glasgow to be able to be comfortable and fed in their own homes this 
winter.