RPI inflation, 2023 to August 2026
£1,000 in 2023 is £1,129 today
That £1,000 bought 219 pints of lager in 2023. Today it buys 192.
Prices up 13%3.5% a year on averageMultiply by 1.13
What £1,000 buys
Official average shop prices, not a basket. Things marked as outrunning inflation got dearer faster than everything else; things that lagged got relatively cheaper.
| Item | 2023 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| pints of lager£4.56 then, about £5.20 today | 219 | 192 |
| first-class stampsoutran inflation£1.10 then, £1.80 today | 909 | 556 |
| litres of unleaded£1.48 then, about £1.48 today | 676 | 678 |
| kg of bananas£1.09 then, about £1.10 today | 917 | 911 |
| packs of 20 cigarettes£14.25 then, about £17.87 today | 70 | 56 |
| pints of milk67p then, about 70p today | 1,488 | 1,429 |
| kg of roasting chicken£3.80 then, about £4.07 today | 263 | 246 |
| pints of bitter£3.80 then, about £4.09 today | 263 | 244 |
| sliced white loaves£1.37 then, about £1.51 today | 730 | 664 |
| boxes of tea bags£2.46 then, about £2.84 today | 407 | 352 |
| nips of whisky£3.78 then, about £4.20 today | 265 | 238 |
| kg of rump steak£18.11 then, about £20.33 today | 55 | 49 |
| Same money, adjusted for inflation | £1,000 | £1,129 |
The ONS stopped publishing these average prices in January 2025. Today's figures are that last reading moved on with inflation, so treat them as close rather than exact.
Houses and wages
Inflation is one story. What people earned, and what a home cost, are the other two.
Average house
£259,862 → £278,784
Up 1.1×, against 1.1× for prices generally
Average pay
£34,268 → £39,312
A year's average earnings, up 1.1×
Years of pay for a house
7.6 → 7.1
Average house price divided by average annual pay
If it had tracked wages
£1,147
What £1,000 in 2023 would be today if it had grown with pay rather than prices