Members in attendance

• Dame Kate Barker (Chair)
• Jonathan Camfield (Lane Clark & Peacock)
• Richard Gibson (Barnett Waddingham)
• Jenny King (Which?)
• Simon Kirby (Bank of England)
• Ashwin Kumar (Manchester Metropolitan University & Institute of Public Policy and Research)
• Jill Leyland (Royal Statistical Society)
• Tim Pike (Pensions Policy Institute)
• Ellie Price (HMT)
• James Smith (Resolution Foundation)
• Ian Rowson (Independent Policy Analyst)
• Geoff Tily (TUC)

ONS Secretariat

• Richard Harris

ONS Presenters

• Mike Hardie
• Chris Jenkins

Observers

• Stephen Burgess (ONS)
• Aimee North (ONS)
• Oliver Fox-Tatum (OSR)

1. Introduction, apologies, and actions

1. The Chair welcomed everyone to the Stakeholder Panel meeting.
2. The minutes from the last Stakeholder Panel meeting (27 September 2024) were approved. However, the minutes from the Joint Panel meeting with the Technical Panel (2 December 2024) were not approved as members had further comments they wished to see incorporated.
3. The Chair noted that it would be helpful if the Panel could be informed at each meeting what will be published from the previous meeting in terms of papers and slides.
4. It was agreed that action points 43 to 45 had been completed and could be removed from the action point list.
5. It was noted that action point 46 was partially complete as the CPI intensity paper had been sent to the Stakeholder Panel.

2. UKSA review of the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR)

1. Chris Jenkins (CJ) spoke to this agenda item, explaining that the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) had been introduced in March 2024, but that ONS aims to complete the transformation in March 2025 by including Northern Ireland rents in PIPR.
2. CJ then explained that ONS had requested a quality-focussed assessment of PIPR by the Office for Statistics Regulation, which was the first step towards achieving accredited official statistic status for PIPR.
3. The OSR Spotlight on Quality Assessment report was published in October 2024 and set out five requirements for ONS to address before OSR would consider carrying out a full assessment. The report also required that ONS responded to the report in January 2025 and provided updates on a quarterly basis after that.
4. CJ noted that on 23 January ONS had published their response to the OSR report and summarised some of the work that was being done to address OSR’s five requirements.
5. Oliver Fox-Tatum (OT) from OSR welcomed the co-ordinated approach that had been taken so far and looked forward to continuing to work with ONS to aid them in addressing the five requirements.
6. The Panel generally welcomed the work that was being done as it will help stakeholders understand the more detailed aspects of the methodology. The Panel also noted a few areas they would like to see developed further such as the production of a longer back series; the publication of upper quartile, lower quartile and median rent values; and the publication of data by broad rental market area.
7. ONS committed to engaging with stakeholders on these issues after the meeting with a view to helping where possible.
8. The Panel then discussed a letter that had been sent to OSR by Better Statistics, with the Panel chair having been copied in. The letter covered a range of issues and the Panel discussed one of these, which related to PIPR not being based solely on recent evidence of changes in pricing.
9. The Panel agreed that it would be helpful for it to discuss this issue at a date in the future and requested that ONS produce a paper which will allow discussion on whether the stock-based methodological approach in PIPR is consistent with calculating consumer price indices using the acquisition approach.

Action:

ONS to engage with stakeholders to discuss the areas identified as priorities for development for the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR).

Action:

ONS to produce a paper which will allow discussion on whether the stock-based methodological approach in PIPR is consistent with calculating price indices using the acquisition approach.

3. Alternative Data Source update

1. Mike Hardie (MH) summarised what had been published the day before the Panel which included a blog and an impact analysis following the introduction of consumption segments and improved methods in terms of imputation and Northern Ireland private rental price statistics.
2. MH also explained that in April ONS plan to release a video on the use of GEKS-Tornqvist and an impact analysis relating to the introduction of scanner data. MH invited feedback from Panel members on the publications and on whether further communications were necessary in the coming months.
3. The Panel thought that the video did its job well and should be helpful in explaining to less technical users what GEKS-Tornqvist was. The Panel also encouraged ONS to test it on the public before its release, to ensure it informed but also provided people with greater confidence in ONS’s methods.
4. MH then presented a summary of the impact of the introduction of scanner data on headline indices before asking for thoughts in terms of the scope of what is published as part of the impact analysis in April.
5. The Panel welcomed first sight of the scanner data as it was an exciting development. There was discussion on whether it would be helpful to publish data relating to as many years as possible alongside impacts on each of CPI, CPIH and RPI. Some Panel members thought there were benefits to releasing all of the data but others were more wary about releasing the more recent data, therefore it was agreed that ONS would reflect on the feedback before taking any decisions.
6. MH then summarised the changes that are happening as a result of the introduction of consumption segments but asked for views on whether this term was the most appropriate for use in bulletins and briefings.
7. The Panel acknowledged that there were a collection of other words that could be used and that there were pros and cons to using each of them. However, the Panel also thought that having a clear and very easily accessible explanation to whichever term that was chosen was the most important thing to ensure. ONS agreed to reflect on the feedback before taking a decision.

4. Forward Work Plan

1. Richard Harris summarised the proposed forward work plan and asked the Panel for comments.
2. The Panel agreed with what was in the forward work plan but also asked for Household Costs Indices, the future focus of the Panel, and PIPR methodology to be added.

4. Any other business / Summary

1. The Chair thanked Panel members for their contributions to the meeting and the ONS for their presentations and papers.
2. The Panel thanked the Chair for her excellent leadership and for ensuring everyone was listened to over the past nine years.
3. The date and time of the next Panel meeting is 10:30am on Friday 25 April.