Confidence in household finances drops for year ahead

In consumer confidence data from September, YouGov and Cebr said that consumer confidence had declined from a score of 97.4 to 05.2, with scores of less than 100 indicating negative sentiment towards household finances.

The data also showed that despite greater pessimism over household finances, there was little overall change to the consumer confidence index, which moved from a score of 110.9 to 111.

Workers felt safer in their roles over the past month, with confidence scores increasing by 1.2 points, but – with outlook falling from 118.4 to 115.1 – they were more pessimistic about the future.

Business activity measures – which examines people’s confidence in the state of their workplace – for the past 30 days jumped from 109.4 to 112.7, while the outlook for the next 12 months increased from 125.6 to 126.2. 

House price scores rose from 115.5 to 116.1, with UK homeowners more likely to believe the value of their properties went up over the past 30 days.

The mood for the next 12 months was also more optimistic for house prices, with scores rising from 131.2 to 131.4.

The data is based on more than 6,000 interviews carried out by YouGov every month, with respondents answering questions about household finances, property prices, job security and business activity over the past 30 days and for the coming 12 months.

Sam Miley, managing economist and forecasting lead at Cebr, said: “Beneath the broadly unchanged confidence index lie some areas of concern. One area of note is job security, with consumers becoming less confident in their future labour market prospects.

“Forward-looking confidence over household finances also took a hit this month, despite interest rates now starting to fall amid lower inflation.

“Looking ahead, policy announcements at the upcoming Budget will provide a clearer indication of the new government’s approach towards the economy and will likely impact the confidence index in the months ahead.”