Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that UK inflation slowed to 3.6 per cent in October, and what the implications are for policies aimed at reducing cost-of-living pressures for households and businesses.

The OBR expects inflation to have peaked in Q3 2025, and that it will fall progressively to the Bank of England’s 2% target in Q1 2027. The Bank of England has overall responsibility for controlling inflation and beyond this, the government is targeting inflation at its source, by bearing down on everyday expenses such as energy bills, transport and childcare costs to ease cost of living pressures.

Taken together the OBR’s forecast shows government policy will reduce CPI inflation by 0.4 percentage points in 2026/27. This is the biggest near-term reduction in inflation due to government policy ever forecast by the OBR at a single fiscal event, outside of a crisis.