July 2023: Housing costs rise, house prices fall, and consumer confidence declines

• Consumer confidence falls by -1.6 points
• All measures decline except job security outlook (+1.6)
• Short-term (-2.4) confidence in household finances and outlook (-4.7) both decline
• Home value measures for past 30 days (-2.7) and next 12 months (-0.4) also deteriorate

Consumer confidence fell for the second month in a row, according to the latest analysis from YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). YouGov collects consumer confidence data every day, conducting over 6,000 interviews a month. Respondents answer questions about household finances, property prices, job security, and business activity, both over the past 30 days and looking ahead to the next 12 months.

Inflation, rising interest rates and the accompanying surge in housing costs – for renters and homeowners alike – have left the British public more pessimistic about their personal finances. Measures for the past 30 days fell from 78.7 to 76.3 (-2.4), while outlook for the next 12 months declined from 81.0 to 76.3 (-4.7).

Confidence in house prices also declined following another month of negative headlines about home values. Short-term scores slumped by -2.7 points from 107.4 to 104.7, and scores for the year ahead saw a minor decrease from 108.2 to 107.8 (-0.4).

With scores for retrospective measures falling from 109.5 to 106.7, employees were more likely to report a slowdown in business activity over the past 30 days (-2.8). They were also marginally less confident about activity over the next 12 months, with outlook inching downwards from 119.4 to 119.1 (-0.3).

Workers were also more likely to be worried about their job security over the month of July, with scores deteriorating from 94.0 to 93.4 (-0.6). That said, they were more optimistic about the year ahead: scores for the next 12 months improved from 114.6 to 116.2 (+1.6) – the only measure that saw any improvement.