UK inflation at 30-year high

Inflation in the UK reached a 30 year high in the 12 months to January, at 5.5% CPI (consumer prices index) and 7.8% RPI (retail prices index), further fuelling fears over an impending cost of living crisis. In December the figures had been, respectively, 5.4% and 7.5%.

CPIH (consumer prices index including owner occupiers’ housing costs) rose by 4.9% in the same period, up from 4.8%, according to the ONS.

Union reaction to the rise was swift. UNISON called it “the stuff of nightmares”, Unite said “it’s a national disgrace that some workers have to choose between heating and eating while profits rain down in boardrooms”, while GMB warned that workers face a “triple whammy of soaring fuel prices, increasing cost of living and real wages down”.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The chancellor must fund real pay rises across the public sector and raise the minimum wage to £10. And working people must get stronger pay bargaining rights, so that unions can win fair pay rises.”

And the Resolution Foundation, warned: “Today’s increase is consistent with the Bank of England’s view that inflation will surpass 7% this spring, which could drive the deepest squeeze on living standards in six decades.”

https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/consumerpriceinflationukjanuary2022

https://www.unison.org.uk/news/press-release/2022/02/inflation-figures-a-nightmare-for-families-and-public-services-says-unison

https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2022/february/as-inflation-soars-unite-leader-reiterates-demands-for-pay-increases-to-combat-brutal-cost-of-living-crisis

https://www.gmb.org.uk/news/triple-whammy-hit-working-people-real-wages-fall

https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/inflation-recovery-will-be-choked-if-chancellor-does-not-protect-real-wages-warns-tuc

https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/press-releases/rising-inflation-puts-britain-on-course-for-deepest-living-standards-squeeze-in-six-decades