WE all know the cost of living is rising. But to see the stark figures published in today’s paper is worrying.

Day by day, motorists have noticed fuel prices going up, shoppers have seen food costs rising and business folk have seen a change in benefit payments, National Insurance and tax.

Looking at it in the round, and what it means to Oxfordshire families, shows the true effects of the economic downturn on all of us.

In his Easter message, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said corporate prosperity without fulfilment was an “empty thing”.

And, of course, he is correct.

Fulfilment comes from our relationships with friends, family and loved ones.

But some families in Oxfordshire are simply struggling to make ends meet – and that in itself can have a knock-on effect on relationships, mental health and opportunity.

Just last week we reported how Oxford was getting relatively more deprived.

And if this is the case now, with the cost of living spiralling higher and higher, we wonder how serious the long-term effects will be.