April 2026: Household finance measures plunge as consumer confidence falls for the second month in a row

• Overall index declines by -3.4 points
• Household finance measures fall for the past 30 days (-9.0) and next 12 months (-8.6)
• Retrospective (-3.3) and forward-looking (-1.3) house price measures deteriorate
• Workers more negative about the past month’s business activity (-1.5), outlook also declines (-4.1)

Consumer confidence continued to decline in April 2026, according to the latest data from YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). Headline figures fell from 105.8 to 102.4 (-3.4) as nearly every metric deteriorated.

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, capturing their views on the past 30 days and on their forecast for the coming 12 months.

Household finance metrics saw the most significant impact. Retrospective measures plummeted from 85.0 to 76.0: the lowest level since April 2023, and the largest month-on-month drop since February 2022. Outlook did not fare much better: measures for our forward-looking metric dropped from 85.6 to 77.0 – the lowest since July 2023. A partial explanation may be that the conflict in Iran has been weighing on consumers’ minds.  Recent headlines have indicated that this could lead to a multi-billion pound economic hit.

Other metrics fared better – but still told an increasingly pessimistic story. Homeowners grew less confident in house prices over the past 30 days, with retrospective scores falling from 113.3 to 110.0 (-3.3); outlook also dropped from 129.9 to 128.6 (-1.3). Business activity measures also deteriorated. Workers were more likely to report slower activity over the past 30 days, with scores deteriorating from 108.5 to 107.0 (-1.5), and they were gloomier about the future, with outlook deteriorating from 117.8 to 113.7 (-4.1).

Employees were also less positive about their retrospective job security, with scores falling from 116.1 to 115.6 (-0.5). The only positive movement in the entire index for April 2026, however, was worker outlook: scores for the next 12 months rose from 90.1 to 91.0 (+0.9).

Sam Miley, Head of Forecasting and Thought Leadership at Cebr, said:

“The recent escalation of conflict in Iran is set to rock the global economy. Impacts on the UK will primarily be felt through inflation, with energy, motor fuel, and food prices all set to increase, damaging consumer spending power. It is therefore of little surprise to see weaker perceptions of household finances in this month’s Index, driving the overall reduction in confidence.”