Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the percentage cost-of-living increases nationally during each of the last five years; and what was the annual percentage increase in rates in Northern Ireland over the same period.

​The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger CB, National Statistician, to Lord Maginnis of Drumglass, dated 20 April 2018

Dear Lord Maginnis,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what was the percentage cost-of-living increases nationally during each of the last five years; and what was the annual percentage increase in rates in Northern Ireland over the same period (HL6934).

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) is our most comprehensive measure of inflation, and measures the change in price of a fixed basket of goods and services. The 12-month percentage change in the index is published on a monthly basis. The table below summarises the average 12-month percentage change for each of the last five years.

Table 1: Annual average percentage 12-month change, CPIH, UK, 2013 to 2017

These data are taken from Table 10 of our Consumer Price Inflation bulletin[1]. In this publication you will also find the 12-month CPIH inflation rates, and similar figures for the Consumer Prices Index (CPI, the Monetary Policy Committee’s current inflation target). CPIH is the same as CPI but includes Council Tax and a measure of owner occupiers’ housing costs, which are not included in CPI. CPIH and CPI are both National Statistics.

Unfortunately, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not currently produce an inflation measure for Northern Ireland. This is because the price sample is optimised at the national level and therefore regional price samples are small. Nevertheless, I do recognise that there is an important user need for regional measures of inflation, and to address this ONS have asked the University of Southampton to carry out a feasibility study into calculating regional price indices[2].

You may also be interested to know that ONS analysis suggests that prices in Northern Ireland were on average 2.3% lower than the UK average for 2016. (Note that this analysis refers to the relative difference in price between regions, which is distinct from the rate at which prices change over time). This is taken from our Relative Regional Consumer Price Levels of Goods and Services, UK: 2016 publication[3], which is based on estimates produced for Eurostat once every 6 years.

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/ukconsumerpriceinflationmar2018

[2] See our Consumer Prices Development Plan, section 3.3.5

[3]https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/relativeregionalconsumerpricelevelsuk/2016