Every price change, dated, sourced and permanently linkable.

Energy price cap rises 4% to £1,723 from October

Announced at 07:00 this morning. The cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 is £1,723 a year for a typical dual fuel direct debit household, up £60 from £1,663. Gas bills rise about 8%; electricity is broadly flat because VAT on domestic electricity is being cut from 5% to 0% at the same moment. Standard credit goes to £1,861 and prepayment to £1,678. About 35% of households are on fixed tariffs and are unaffected.

At least one tariff site is currently publishing £1,935 for this period. Ofgem's own press release and its summary of changes both say £1,723.

Source: Ofgem

Canada answers Section 338 with dollar for dollar counter tariffs

Canada imposed duties of 15%, 25% and 50% across roughly 700 products worth C$27.6bn, about US$20bn, close to 4.5% of its imports from the United States. Steel, aluminium, furniture and clothing take 50%. Cheese, appliances and some seafood take 25%. Electronics and tools take 15%. A C$7.5bn support package for affected businesses accompanies the measure, on top of roughly C$25bn already provided.

The C$27.6bn Canadian figure and the roughly US$20bn of Canadian goods caught by Section 338 are close by coincidence. They are different currencies measuring different trade flows in opposite directions.

Source: Department of Finance Canada

First ever use of Section 338 puts 50% on Canadian dairy, vehicles and alcohol

Three proclamations cover 554 subheadings across dairy, motor vehicles, alcoholic beverages, wood, paper and hockey equipment, together about $20bn of annual imports or about 5.2% of the $382bn imported from Canada in 2025. The stated grounds are EU favourable dairy quota access, Canada's 25% retaliatory tariff on United States motor vehicles, and provincial boycotts of United States alcohol. Qualifying under USMCA does not exempt goods.

The three proclamations of 20 July 2026 set an effective date of 19 August. A further proclamation on 18 August suspended the duties for three days, moving the effective date to 12.01am ET on 22 August 2026. Much of the trade press still carries 19 August. Use 22 August.

Source: White & Case

Average UK rent reaches £1,393 a month

Private rents rose 3.7% in the year to July 2026 to a UK average of £1,393 a month. London averages £2,317 and the North East £783, but the North East has the fastest rent inflation in England at 6.3%. House prices rose 2.0% to £272,000, while London house prices actually fell 2.5%.

Local Housing Allowance remains frozen at January 2024 rates, so every month of rent inflation widens the gap between what the benefit pays and what a tenancy costs.

Source: ONS

Ofcom refreshes the broadband social tariff list

Thirty three broadband tariffs and three mobile tariffs for people on means tested benefits, starting at £12 a month for 50Mb. Only 532,000 households are on one, and Ofcom's own research found 70% of eligible households do not know they exist.

Source: Ofcom

Motor premiums edge up to £566 as claims costs keep climbing

The average motor premium paid rose £6 to £566 in Q2 2026, still down about £14 year on year in real terms. Claims told a different story: £3.2bn paid out, up 7% year on year, with the average claim at £4,900. On the home side premiums fell to £383 combined while the average payout passed £7,000 for the first time and subsidence hit a record £20,000.

Source: ABI

Section 232 pharmaceutical tariff begins phasing, at 100% only for some

Annex III companies from 31 July 2026, all others from 29 September 2026. The 100% headline applies to a minority of the trade. The European Union, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are capped at 15%. The United Kingdom is tariff free for a minimum of three years. Thirteen companies holding HHS most favoured nation pricing agreements pay nothing until 20 January 2029, and an approved onshoring plan brings the rate to 20%.

Source: Crowell & Moring

Section 301 forced labour tariffs replace the expiring Section 122 surcharge

Effective 12.01am on 24 July 2026, immediately after Section 122 expired. Seventeen economies including Canada, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom pay 10% additive because they operate or have committed to a forced labour import prohibition. The European Union and Taiwan pay net of MFN to reach 10%. Japan, Korea and Switzerland are charged to a 12.5% combined rate. All other investigated economies pay 12.5% additive. China's aggregate Section 301 exposure reaches 37.5%. Goods entered duty free under USMCA are exempt, which is the opposite of the Section 338 treatment and the most common point of confusion.

Source: USTR

Section 122 global 10% surcharge expires at its statutory limit

Section 122 carries a hard 150 day life under 19 USC 2132 and cannot be renewed by proclamation. The Court of International Trade had already invalidated it on 7 May 2026, but the government appealed and obtained a stay on 12 May, so collection continued to expiry and refunds were ordered only for three named plaintiffs. The surcharge lapsed on 24 July 2026 and was replaced the same minute by the Section 301 forced labour tariff.

Source: Honigman

Postal delivered duty paid threshold raised to $2,500

The postal informal entry and delivered duty paid ceiling rose to $2,500. The $800 commercial de minimis exemption remains suspended and was made indefinite by interim final rule effective 24 June 2026. From 22 October 2026, Chapter 98 duty free claims, free trade agreement claims and goods regulated by partner government agencies become ineligible for the postal process.

Source: Federal Register

25% Section 301 tariff on Brazil, with over 1,600 subheadings exempt

A separate country investigation produced a 25% tariff on Brazilian goods, which then stacks with the 12.5% forced labour layer for a potential 37.5%. More than 1,600 HTS subheadings are exempted, so the exemption list is the first place to look.

Source: Zonos

Three in four customers worse off under the pounds and pence rules

An analysis of 47,000 tariffs covering April 2024 to March 2026 found 75% of customers are worse off than they would have been under the old inflation linked system, and 99% face above inflation rises. A low data mobile contract at £8 a month sees a 31% rise where the old rules would have given about 7.3%.

Ofcom has published no assessment of its own policy. The only two evaluations are from Citizens Advice and MoneySavingExpert, and both conclude it failed.

Source: MoneySavingExpert

Trade court strikes down the Section 122 surcharge, but collection continues

The Court of International Trade held that the 10% surcharge exceeded the President’s authority under 19 USC 2132. The government appealed the following day and obtained a stay on 12 May, so importers kept paying to expiry. Refunds with interest were ordered for three named plaintiffs only. If you paid the surcharge and were not a plaintiff, you did not get it back.

Source: Skadden

Section 21 abolished and rent rises capped to once a year

The main provisions of the Renters' Rights Act came into force. No fault section 21 evictions and fixed term assured shorthold tenancies are abolished, and every existing tenancy became periodic with no end date. Rent can rise once a year to market rate only, on two months' notice. A tenant challenging an increase at the First-tier Tribunal can no longer be ordered to pay more than the landlord asked for, and increases are no longer backdated. Rent in advance beyond one month is banned, and so is rental bidding above the advertised price.

Source: MHCLG

TV licence rises £5.50 to £180

The standard colour licence rose from £174.50 to £180 on 1 April 2026, an uplift of 3.14% under the CPI indexation in the 2022 licence fee settlement. Black and white stays available at £60.50. The blind concession is half price at £90, residential care is £7.50, and over 75s on Pension Credit pay nothing.

gov.uk states the uplift was 3.14% while TV Licensing's own page says 3.15%. We publish the government figure and flag the disagreement.

Source: gov.uk

The April round of mid contract rises lands, up to £4 a month

BT, EE, Virgin Media and TalkTalk applied £4 a month to their newest contract cohorts. Vodafone took £3.50 on home broadband and £2.50 on mobile airtime, O2 £2.50, Sky £3 on broadband, Three between £1.80 and £2.30 depending on data allowance. On a £28 budget package a £4 rise is 14%, against CPI of 3.2%.

Sky is the outlier. It did not adopt fixed pounds and pence for existing customers, so a Sky customer signing today has no contractual certainty about what year two costs.

Source: EE

Average Band D council tax in England passes £2,392

Up £111 or 4.9% on 2025/26, including parish precepts. Nine authorities were given permission to exceed the 5% referendum threshold, three of them up to 9%. No authority exceeded its own principle. The adult social care precept raised £688m, about £35 on a Band D bill. Dorset is highest at £2,765 and Wandsworth lowest at £1,028.

Source: MHCLG

Childcare costs fall sharply for families who qualify for funded hours

Coram's Childcare Survey 2026 reports the cost of a full time under two nursery place in England fell 39% against 2025 for eligible families, following the completion of the 30 hour rollout in September 2025. A part time place for an eligible under two is now theoretically free during term time. Families who do not qualify still pay about £189 a week for the same part time place.

Coram's full time figures are net of the funded entitlement and its part time figures are not, which is why full time can appear cheaper than part time in the same table.

Source: Coram

Dental charges up 1.66% while prescriptions stay frozen

NHS dental charges in England rose on 1 April 2026 to £27.90 for band 1, £76.60 for band 2 and £332.10 for band 3. The prescription charge was frozen at £9.90 for a second successive year, along with prepayment certificates at £32.05 for three months and £114.50 for twelve. Prescriptions remain free for everyone in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Source: DHSC

Competition watchdog hands five water companies £463m more

Anglian, Northumbrian, South East, Southern and Wessex disputed Ofwat's price review settlement. The CMA raised their allowed return from 4.03% to 4.20% and awarded £463m of additional revenue, about 17% of what they asked for. Expect roughly 2.2% on those customers' bills across the five year period. The five serve about seven million households.

Source: CMA

WaterSure reformed, about 300,000 households to benefit

The income cap rises to £25,745 and eligibility extends to people receiving PIP, DLA or Attendance Allowance, bringing in about 53,000 more households. The medical practitioner's note is dropped for unlisted conditions and automatic enrolment replaces the application. A new single occupier cap is introduced. About 53,000 single households save an extra £100 and about 130,000 multi occupant households save around £26.

Source: gov.uk

Regulated rail fares frozen for the first time in thirty years

Regulated fares in England were held at 0% from 2 March 2026 rather than rising 5.8% under the usual formula, which the Department for Transport says saves passengers £600m a year across more than a billion journeys. The freeze covers standard class season, anytime and off peak tickets and runs until March 2027. Scotland froze ScotRail fares for twelve months in February and Wales froze every Transport for Wales fare from 1 March.

Almost every rail figure on this site expires around March 2027, and the London bus fares expire sooner, on 1 November 2026.

Source: DfT

Section 122 10% global surcharge fills the gap left by IEEPA

Four days after the Supreme Court invalidated the IEEPA reciprocal tariffs, a 10% global surcharge was imposed under Section 122 balance of payments authority, carrying a statutory 150 day limit from the outset.

Source: Federal Register

Citizens Advice says Ofcom's price rise rules have failed

Awareness of mid contract rises among people on new contracts rose only to 38% for mobile and 36% for broadband, from 30% and 29%. A £4 rise is about 11.1% on a typical bill against CPI of 3.2%, more than three times inflation, and it lands hardest on the cheapest packages. Citizens Advice is calling for mid contract rises to be banned outright.

Source: Citizens Advice

Supreme Court strikes down the IEEPA reciprocal tariffs

The Court held that IEEPA does not authorise tariffs at all, which removed the trafficking tariffs on Canada and Mexico as well as the reciprocal schedule running from a 10% baseline to a 145% peak on China. This is the pivot point of the whole story: every measure in force today rests on a different statute, chosen for its durability against challenge.

Source: K&L Gates

FCA declines to cap the cost of paying insurance monthly

The premium finance market study found average APRs down 4.1 percentage points since 2022, saving consumers about £157m a year. The cost of paying monthly fell from £49 to £41 on motor and £18 to £15 on home. The FCA confirmed it will not impose a price cap and will not mandate interest free instalments, relying on fair value and Consumer Duty monitoring instead. Over 23 million policies are paid monthly.

Source: FCA

Local Housing Allowance frozen at January 2024 rates for another year

The Rent Officers Modification Order 2026 fixes Local Housing Allowance for every broad rental market area in England, Wales and Scotland at the rates determined on 31 January 2024, for the whole of 2026/27. Rates were originally set at the 30th percentile of market rents at that date and are not being recalculated against current rents, which have risen 3.7% in the last year alone.

Source: legislation.gov.uk

Water bills rise £33 to an average of £639

The average household bill in England and Wales for 2026/27 is £639, made up of £309 for water and £330 for sewerage, up 5.4%. Southern Water is dearest at £759 and Northumbrian cheapest at £535, a £224 spread for a service nobody can switch away from. Severn Trent took the largest rise among the big companies at 10%; Thames took 0.4%.

Source: Water UK

White paper confirms no national water social tariff

A New Vision for Water confirms support stays company by company, with an average £640m a year available for low income customers to 2030 and an industry commitment to address water poverty by that date. It also proposes abolishing Ofwat in favour of a single integrated regulator, with no date set. Campaigners at CCW and Independent Age continue to press for one national scheme.

Do not assume a national scheme exists. What you get depends entirely on which company happens to serve your postcode.

Source: Defra

25% Section 232 tariff on advanced semiconductors

Far narrower than the name suggests. Logic integrated circuits inside specified performance and memory bandwidth bands only, with nine end use exceptions including data centres, research and development, repairs and consumer electronics. Semiconductor manufacturing equipment is not covered in this phase.

Source: White & Case