Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of inflationary pressures on household finances in Redditch.

Higher inflation in recent years has added to pressures on household finances, especially through the price of everyday essentials such as food and energy.

The Office for National Statistics does not produce inflationary data at the constituency level. At the national level headline CPI inflation decreased from 3.3% in March to 2.8% in April. This was mainly driven by lower household energy bills and a fall in services inflation. Food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation fell from 3.7% in March to 3.0% in April.

Cost of living pressures are still felt by many families. Thanks to decisions made at the Budget, the Government took an average of £150 off energy bills from April, froze rail fares and NHS prescription fees for this year, and put more money in people’s pockets by removing the two-child limit and increasing the national living wage.

To tackle the most acute cost pressures arising from the Middle East conflict, the Government announced emergency support for heating oil customers and an extension to the fuel duty cut until the end of the year. To tackle food prices, the Government is consulting businesses on suspending agri-food tariffs on 125 types of products, which will bring down the cost of staple goods that families across the UK buy every week.