That's it from us after a busy day.

There's undoubtedly a lot to get your head around - but we're here to help.

Find out why the cost of living is soaring here, how interest rates might affect you here, and what help you can get here.

Today's live page was written by Nathan Williams, Jeremy Gahagan, Chris Giles, Jo Couzens, Joseph Lee, Alex Kleiderman, James Harness, Malu Cursino and Dulcie Lee and was edited by Rob Corp.

Image source, EPA

It's been a huge day for households worried about rising bills. Here's a reminder of the main developments.

• The Bank of England says the UK faces the biggest fall in living standards since records began in 1990, as the cost of living surges
• Energy bills will rise sharply, after regulator Ofgem announced the price cap would go up by 54%, with the average customer paying £693 more
• Chancellor Rishi Sunak outlined a plan to soften the blow, with a £150 council tax discount for 80% of households in April, and a £200 rebate on energy bills in October
• He rejected calls to scrap the plans for the rise in National Insurance in April, saying it's needed to pay for clearing NHS backlogs
• Labour accused the chancellor of failing to understand the scale of the crisis and said a windfall tax on profits from North Sea oil and gas should fund a £600 cut in energy bills for people in need
• Interest rates were also hiked by the Bank of England from 0.25% to 0.5% it said it was necessary to curb the rapid rise in the cost of living

A little earlier we heard from Chancellor Rishi Sunak defending his plans to support households in England amid rising costs for energy bills.

The Resolution Foundation - a think tank which looks at living standards for low and middle income earners - says Sunak has an "ambitious" plan.

But it tweeted, external that by opting for support for nearly everyone - instead of a targeted plan for low-income households - the number of families in fuel stress is set to double.

Sunak has said because the price rises were "so significant" he wanted to make sure the support he provided went to all families, not just those on lower incomes.

Image source, Reuters

As he raised interest rates in a bid to curb inflation, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey issued a plea to workers not to ask for big pay rises to help them with increases in the cost of living.

He told the BBC that it would be "painful" for workers to accept that prices would rise faster than their wages, but said some "moderation of wage rises" was needed to prevent inflation becoming entrenched.

"I don't want to in any sense sugar that, it is painful. But we need to see that in order to get through this problem more quickly," he said.

Inflation, which measures how fast the cost of living is rising, is expected to reach an average of about 6% in 2022.

We're all worried about rising bills and the growing cost of living - now research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed the areas in England that could be hit hardest by today's 54% rise in energy prices.

They say the worst hit local authority areas include:

• The Isle of Scilly (£1,092)
• Eden in the North West (£940)
• Ryedale in Yorkshire (£836)

Meanwhile families living in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s area of Richmondshire face an average energy price hike of £836 - the sixth highest in England.

In the South East, the worst hit areas are Mole Valley (£767), Sevenoaks (£757) and Rother (£741).

Nick Johnson
BBC News

Image source, BBC News

Let's get more reaction to today's warning of rising energy bills: Louise from Leicester has been telling us how she is already working out how she will use her heating during the day.

Louise is part of a large family in a house with five children. She says the rise in energy prices is going to make an already precarious situation even worse.

“We’re thinking of turning the heating on for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening. So long as my grandson goes to bed warm, that’s the most important thing.”

She adds, "we’re going to have cut back even further on food” and thinks “bulk cooking is going to have become something we rely upon even more”.

It's not just energy prices - people are being hit by rising costs in many other areas.

Inflation is at its highest level for 30 years, having risen to 5.4% in the 12 months to December.

Over the last year, we've seen vehicle prices go up by more than 13%, while public transport users were hit with a near 6% rise in fares.

Food and clothing costs have also risen by some 4.5% over the last year.

Want to escape it all with a holiday? Package deals have gone up 2.6% over the last 12 months.

BBC Radio 5 Live

We've been speaking to lots of people today, to find out how the energy bill price cap rise will affect them.

Sue lives near Newtown in Powys and has health issues which prevent her from working.

She tells Radio 5 Live a charity has been helping feed her 10-year-old dog Dylan.

"He's a big dog with a big food bill and big vet's bill," she says. "His total food bill is just shy of £60 a month."

"He's my best friend and I'd be lost without him. If it was a choice between going hungry myself or not feeding Dylan, I'd feed him."

Money worries have affected Sue, with her regularly skipping two or three meals a week and avoiding turning on lights and heating in her house.

"I worry about it," she says. "It's the knock on effect with my own personal mental health, worrying about the way the economic climate is going."

Image source, PA Media

If you missed the chancellor's press conference on the big increases in energy bills, these were the key bits:

• Rishi Sunak said his plan to offer a £150 council tax discount in April to households in England in bands A to D and give people a £200 rebate on energy bills in October was "right and fair"
• He was speaking after energy regulator Ofgem announced households would face an extra £693 on average on their annual energy bills from April

• But, it's worth noting the £200 rebate has to be repaid by customers over five years

• The chancellor was also asked why he didn't focus his latest spending solely on the poorest in society after the government's new levelling up plans were announced with fanfare earlier this week
• Sunak said price rises were "so significant" that not only families on benefits would "feel the pinch" and he wanted to make sure the support provided went to all families
• The chancellor was also asked if it was time to rethink the upcoming National Insurance hike - there is some unease in the Tory party over the tax hike
• He said the increase due in April was the right thing to do because it would help pay for the backlogs in the NHS caused by Covid

A bit more from Labour's Nick Thomas Symonds, who says the government should have offered something more "ambitious" at a time when companies like Shell announced a "momentous year" after making $20bn in profits.

He says there should be a windfall tax on profits from North Sea oil and gas to fund greater support, with £600 off energy bills for households that need it.

Instead the government is offering a "buy now, pay later" scheme and giving with one hand then taking back with the other, he says.

He adds that Labour would offer a long-term plan of investment in the energy sector, with £28bn each year for things such as insulation and renewable energy.

During the press conference, which was intended to focus on the cost of living, the chancellor was asked several times about the prime minister's debunked claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute serial sex offender Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions.

One of Boris Johnson's closest aides, Munira Mirza, has resigned saying the PM should have apologised for the misleading remarks.

The prime minister has since clarified the comments he made in the Commons earlier this week.

He said today he had not been talking about Sir Keir's "personal record" when he was Director of Public Prosecutions, adding: "I totally understand that he had nothing to do personally with those decisions.

"I was making a point about his responsibility for the organisation as a whole."

Image source, PA Media

So we've heard from the chancellor.

Here's a take from Martin Lewis, the money saving expert who millions trust for financial advice.

He warns the £200 rebate on energy bills in October could leave consumers worse off.

"The issue is that it is a loan and it needs repaying at £40 a year," he says. "In effect the Chancellor has created the equivalent of a giant UK-wide energy direct debit, trying to spread the hit of a high-cost period and repay once things return to normal."

But the problem is there’s no guarantee things will return to normal, Lewis says.

"This ‘winter’ could last for years, and if that happens, an extra £40 on future bills will be a very high price to pay."

Labour's shadow international trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds is giving his reaction, calling the package of measures from the chancellor "underwhelming".

He says: "We have a chancellor who just doesn’t grasp the scale of the cost of living crisis due to his decisions."

Thomas-Symonds points to cuts to Universal Credit, rising inflation and the rise in National Insurance which is coming.

He acknowledges that energy costs are going up due to global pressures, as Sunak said several times, but argues the government's energy policy has made things worse.

The chancellor was also asked whether loans to energy companies to offer people a rebate on their bills that will be paid back down the line was a bail-out?

"In no way shape or form is this a bailout of energy companies," he responded. "This is help to families."

He added: "When you’re faced with a shock of this magnitude the sensible thing for governments to do is not to pretend it doesn’t exist but to help ease the burden of it by spreading it over some years."

Image source, Reuters

In that news conference, Rishi Sunak was asked if there was a point when he would step in - as a Conservative chancellor - and say people are paying too much tax.

He said his mission over the remainder of this Parliament was still to cut people's taxes - and that he felt confident he could still do it.

But - defending what he was doing at the moment, with a rise in National Insurance looming - he said we'd been through a once-in-a-300-year economic shock, with borrowing at the highest level since the Second World War.

The press conference is now over - but we'll bring you a few more interesting things he said, as well as some reaction.

The chancellor is asked about issues with people on low incomes who happen to live in properties valued 30 years ago in a higher tax band. Does he accept that it's poorly targeted as a way to support people?

Sunak says he accepts that no system could be "perfectly targeted", but he says there is a discretionary fund of £150m for councils to support people in this situation.

He says there are about 300,000 people living on benefits who live in houses that are rated about council tax band D, so wouldn't automatically get the £150 discount.

But he defends using the council tax system, saying it has the advantage of working on a household basis, as energy bills do, and being quick.

"People will feel that £150 in April and that’s really good," he says.

Sunak says he still thinks it's the right thing to do.

He says the country is faced with a situation where NHS backlogs are growing to unacceptable levels as a result of Covid.

Everyone wants to see action on that, he says.

It will get to a point where almost every family will have a someone on a waiting list and "that's something we didn't want to see happen".

At the same time the government wanted to "grapple" with the challenges of fixing social care.

Both are big challenges and require serious amounts of funding, he says.

Image source, Downing Street

Rishi Sunak keeps getting asked about this, but he doesn't want to say any more.

He does say though that Munira Mirza, a close adviser to the PM who has just resigned over it, was a "valued colleague and brought a lot to the job and I'll miss working with her".

Sunak says everyone is feeling the pinch and the government wants to make sure the support provided goes to all families.

The £150 council tax discount for households in bands A to D will benefit families in the middle too, he says.