Budget 2026: £100 energy payment for millions and rise in bank tax as watchdog warns on stalling living standards – as it happened

The OBR report says RHDI (real household disposable income – one measure of living standards) is rising at a record slow rate – less than 0.1% per decade. That means, by the end of the decade, it will be just 1% higher than its pre-Covid level, it says.

Our central forecast represents a continuation of the historically weak growth in RHDI per person since the global financial crisis. 7 shows the rolling 10-year average annual growth in RHDI per person. This slowed significantly in the aftermath of the financial crisis, due to lower growth in productivity and real wages. Growth reached a historic low over the 10 years to 2025-26, averaging just ¼ per cent a year, and we expect it to fall further in the near term.