Almost two thirds of Britons are finding it harder to meet household budgets compared to a year ago

Verian’s latest political opinion finds that despite falls in inflation, 62% of GB adults are finding it harder to meet their monthly household budget compared to a year ago. Half of the public also expect the UK economy to be doing worse than it currently is in a year’s time. Given this context, it is no surprise that reducing cost of living is a top policy priority for the public. The next highest priorities are investment in the NHS, and reducing immigration. 

Verian’s research took place between 8th and 14th April 2025, using our Public Voice random sample panel. Our restrictive method of panel-building provides benefits in terms of sample and data quality when compared to many other panels used in the UK for polling. 

General Election voting intentions (8 – 14 April 2025)

• Labour 25% (-6 compared with September 2024 )
• Reform UK 24% (+7)
• Conservative 19% (-7) 
• Liberal Democrat 16% (+3)
• Green 9% (+2) 
• SNP 3% (+1)
• Other 5% (+2)
  

Key policy issues

When asked to select the three most important issues for the UK government to tackle to improve public life, the most important issues are:

• Reducing the cost of living for households (43%)
• Investing more in NHS capacity (40%)
• Stricter border controls to reduce immigration (35%)
• Growing the UK’s economy (30%)
• Reducing crime (21%)

Economic outlook

The general population are pessimistic about the economy, with a significant deterioration since the US election in November 2024:

• Almost two thirds (62%) think the economy is doing worse than a year ago (+26 compared with our September 2024 poll), a third (33%) think it is doing much the same (-18%), and only 5% think it is doing better (-8).
• Looking ahead, half expect the economy to be doing worse in a years’ time than it is now (53%, +18) Meanwhile, 38% expect the economy to be doing much the same as it is now (-10), and only 8% expect the economy to be doing better than it is now (-9).

Despite a fall in inflation, cost of living challenges persist, and people report finding it increasingly difficult to manage:

• Almost two thirds (62%) are finding it harder to meet their monthly household budget than a year ago (+9 compared with September),
• A third (34%) are finding it about the same (-8), and
• Only 4% are finding it easier (-2).

Methodological information

A total of 1,285 interviews were conducted online among adults living in Great Britain between the afternoon of the 8^th and morning of 14^th April 2025. The survey data tables and further details on the methodological approach and weighting will be published on the Verian website by 17^th April 2025.

Our sample was drawn from Verian’s random sample panel Public Voice. This panel is used extensively for social research commissioned by government, academic and third sector organisations, including those based in the US and Europe. Membership of this panel is restricted to those living in a controlled sample of UK addresses drawn from the Royal Mail’s master database. This restrictive method of panel-building is relatively expensive but will ordinarily provide benefits in terms of sample and data quality when compared with a panel that any adult resident in the UK can join. Although the short-period fieldwork web-only protocol used for this poll is much more limited than is typical for a social research survey, the demographic and political composition of the sample is only modestly degraded compared to what could be obtained using the full social research data collection protocol (two to three weeks using both web and telephone interview modes).

The data was weighted to match population totals for age, gender, 2024 General Election voting patterns, education, region, and likelihood to vote in the next General Election.

Media enquiries

For further information on any of the data and findings from the report please contact Lois.Taylor@veriangroup.com or PressEnquiries@veriangroup.com