CPI inflation rises to 3.5% and CPIH to 3.6% on fuel costs

Correct as at 7 November 2026.

UK consumer price inflation rose to 3.5% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 3.1% in August, while the CPIH measure including housing costs reached 3.6%.

Who is affected by the latest inflation figures?

Every household that buys goods and services is touched by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, because they track the cost of a broad basket of spending.

CPIH, the broadest measure, rose from 3.3% in August to 3.6% in September, and the older Retail Prices Index (RPI) stood at 3.9%.

Monthly prices rose 0.4% on both CPI and CPIH in September, compared with little change on CPI and 0.1% on CPIH in September 2025.

How do CPI, CPIH and RPI differ?

The annual rate compares prices in the latest month with the same month a year earlier, so it shows the pace of price rises, not their level.

CPIH adds owner occupiers’ housing costs, which the ONS says make up approximately 18% of the index and are the main reason CPIH and CPI differ.

The ONS says CPI leaves out both owner occupiers’ housing costs and council tax, which CPIH includes.

RPI is a separate, older measure that the ONS reported at 3.9% for September.

What does 3.5% mean in pounds?

As an illustration of the arithmetic only, something with an average price of £100 in September 2025 would now cost £103.50 on the CPI rate.

On the CPIH rate of 3.6% the same item would be £103.60, and on the RPI rate of 3.9% it would be £103.90.

Real prices vary by product, so household experience will differ from these averages.

What rose and what fell?

Transport, particularly motor fuels, made the largest upward contribution to the move in CPIH between August and September, according to the ONS.

Motor fuel inflation was at its highest since August 2022.

Transport was also the largest contributing division to CPI, adding 0.94 percentage points to the rate, while housing and household services added 1.39 points to CPIH.

Core CPIH, which strips out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, rose to 3.1% from 2.9%, and core CPI rose to 2.8% from 2.6%.

On the CPIH measure, goods inflation rose from 2.7% to 3.2%, and services inflation rose from 3.6% to 3.9%.

On CPI, goods inflation also rose from 2.7% to 3.2%, while services inflation rose from 3.4% to 3.7%.

Food and non-alcoholic drinks were the quieter area, with annual inflation at 1.3%, unchanged from August and last lower in September 2021, when it was 0.8%.

Food and non-alcoholic drink prices fell 0.2% on the month in September 2026, the same fall as a year earlier.

How does the UK compare?

The UK’s CPI rate of 3.5% was above France at 3.4% and Germany at 3.3% in September 2026, the ONS said.

Why do these measures matter for household money?

The ONS says CPI is used to set the operational inflation target for monetary policy and to uprate working-age benefits and tax credits.

The Office for Budget Responsibility says the government has set the Bank of England a 2% CPI target.

It adds that, unless the government has set another policy, CPI is used for income tax allowances and thresholds and for most working-age benefit uprating.

RPI is used to set the path for most excise duty rates, and it determines interest on index-linked government debt and on student loans, the OBR says.

Who is left out of the headline figures?

The ONS says CPIH and CPI give an aggregate measure of inflation for household spending across the UK.

It points to separate Household Costs Indices, which reflect how different types of household experience changing prices and differ from CPIH and CPI.

Those indices were last published as a quarterly bulletin on 28 August 2026.

What changed earlier in 2026?

The government’s Great British Summer Savings scheme, announced on 21 May 2026, ended on 1 September 2026.

The ONS said its reversal probably pushed up prices for cultural events, historic monuments and cinema admissions, but it does not appear to have had a substantial effect on headline inflation.

The 2026 CPIH and CPI weights, which set how much each item counts, were calculated from household spending data for 2024.

Separately, the 2026 changes to RPI include supermarket scanner data for groceries, which the Bank of England’s Senior Advisory Committee reviewed in a letter from deputy governor Clare Lombardelli dated 12 December 2025.

The committee viewed the change as a “fundamental change in the basic calculation of the RPI”.

It judged, however, that the evidence did not indicate the change would be materially detrimental to holders of relevant index-linked gilts.

Where can the detail be checked?

The ONS says more information on what each spending division contains can be found in Table 3 of its consumer price inflation dataset.

It adds that, since March 2026, its price quote dataset no longer includes price quote data for food and non-alcoholic beverages, or for alcohol and tobacco.

When will RPI use CPIH methods?

The one dated step is February 2030, when current policy is to bring the methods and data sources of CPIH into RPI, the OBR says.