Inflation and Covid set family’s savings back 10 years

But Mr and Mrs Williams are already thinking about making big changes.

“We are getting to a point where we are considering downsizing and starting again,” he said.

The Covid pandemic delivered the first blow because Mr Williams hadn’t been self-employed for long enough to qualify for state support during lockdown, so he and his wife had to eat into their savings to support their family.

Then the cost of living crisis hit and Mr Williams found his fuel bills escalating.

“I was working in Cheltenham and Gloucester,” he said, “and instead of paying £80, I was paying around £160 to fill up the van.”

The couple had to take out additional borrowing on their mortgage and that -combined with higher interest rates – pushed up their mortgage costs by 40%.

“I’ve got work colleagues around me and everyone’s in the same boat,” said Mr Williams

But he said it was stressful when “at the end of the week you think ‘it’d be nice to go down the pub on a nice day and sit in a beer garden’ and you know that you can’t”.