The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) has said: "We believe that the CPI should become the primary measure of consumer price inflation but only when the inclusion in the index of owner occupiers' housing costs has been achieved."
It has recommended that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) develops owner occupiers’ housing costs (OOH) indices using the "net acquisitions and rental equivalence" approaches for potential inclusion in an expanded CPI (CPIH)
The UKSA Consumer Prices Advisory Committee (CPAC) is currently equally committed to rentals equivalence and net acquisitions and as such has asked ONS to further develop both approaches as part of the work programme on owner occupied housing.
However the ONS has confirmed to the OPA that the inclusion of owner occupied costs in the CPI by itself will not mean that council tax will also be included in the CPI. Neither the rentals equivalence or net acquisitions approach includes a council tax component explicitly.
Fortunately for pensioners it does appear that there is a separate debate currently taking place within the ONS CPI/RPI team on whether council tax should be included in the CPI as part of the annual commodity review that is conducted. Depending on the outcome of these discussions, council tax may start to be included via the annual update of the basket. Clearly such a change is going to take some time.
.
|
