Advisory Panel on Prices (Technical) minutes: 10 July 2026

Members in attendance

• Mr Grant Fitzner (ONS, Chair)
• Dr Bernhard Goldhammer 
• Dr Jan de Haan
• Dr Martin Weale
• Mr Mike Hardie (ONS)
• Mr Peter Levell  
• Mr Rupert de Vincent-Humphreys  
• Ms Frances Krsinich
• Professor Huw Dixon
• Professor Paul Smith    

Presenters

• Mr Liam Greenhough (ONS) 
• Mr Peter Gatabaki (ONS)
• Ms Amy Ditchfield (ONS)

Secretariat

• Ms Rifah Abdullah (ONS)

Other attendees

• Mr Chris Payne (ONS) 
• Mr Stefan Ubovic (ONS)

Apologies

• Ms Aimee North (ONS)
• Dr Jens Mehrhoff

1. Introduction and apologies

1. Mr Fitzner opened the meeting as Chief Economist and passed on apologies from members unable to attend.

2. An update on rail indices 

3. CPI Deep Dive: Telephone and telefax equipment and services

1. Ms Amy Ditchfield presented findings from ONS’ review of telecommunications price measurement. Ms Ditchfield explained that ONS has engaged with the Office of Communications (Ofcom) and other National statistical institutes (NSIs) to better understand methodological and market differences internationally. A panel member questioned whether mobile phone contracts have been compared between UK and other large EU countries and whether we have more uplifts are built into them in UK than other countries. Ms Ditchfield explained that most of the NSIs they have spoken to do not see similar pattern of annual uplifts aside from one, where they see uplifts in a smaller magnitude.
2. Another panel member challenged the assumption that consumers always choose the cheapest tariff and highlighted that customer service and reputation important factors influencing consumer choice. Ms Abdullah clarified that the current methodology identifies the cheapest tariff within each provider rather than the cheapest tariff across the whole market, which will control for those factors.
3. Panel members agree that representative service pricing is appropriate however raised concerns on customer profiles only being updated annually. They stated that consumer usage in telecommunications changes so rapidly, that annually may not keep up with usage trends.

4. Introducing hybrid and electric second-hand cars

1. Mr Liam Greenhough presented ongoing research into the measurement of used car prices, focusing on the challenges posed by the growing presence of hybrid and electric vehicles within the second-hand vehicle market. The current methodology, which has performed well for conventional petrol and diesel vehicles, is based on detailed stratification and the use of unit value methods. However, electric vehicles differ significantly from petrol and diesel vehicles in terms of the characteristics that influence value making existing approaches increasingly difficult to apply. Mr Greenhough outlined research examining whether hedonic methods, particularly Time Dummy Hedonic approaches, may offer a more robust framework for quality adjustment and price measurement. The panel was invited to provide advice on modelling approaches, collinearity and variable selection.
2. Panel members agree with the use of Time Dummy Hedonic methods, noting that the approach is well suited to markets experiencing rapid product change and substantial quality variation. A panel member stated that collinearity should not be a primary concern and suggested that it may be more appropriate to turn all categorical variables into dummies. Further, they suggested that age and milage would also be key variables to use. Another panel member highlighted age is non-log linear variable as depreciation increases more with age. A panel member replied that this can be addressed by using age ranges. Mr Greenhough highlighted that age bins are already a part of the stratification for used cars.
3. One panel member suggested it is worth revisiting the model for second hand electric and hybrid as there are different variables like battery health that consumers consider. Another panel member suggested creating a ‘missing category’ variable to avoid unnecessary removal of observations and maintain sample sizes. Mr Greenhough made a note to look into this.

5. UK House Price Index workplan

1. Mr Peter Gatabaki presented plans for a comprehensive review of the UK House Price Index (HPI) methodology. The review aims to ensure that the index continues to reflect best practice and makes effective use of available data sources. The work is structured around four key strands: regression model specification; imputation methods; treatment of new-build properties; and evaluation of additional data sources. The panel was invited to comment on proposed research priorities and identify areas where international experience or previous methodological work may be relevant.
2. Panel members agreed that the scope of the review looked good and that periodic reassessment of modelling choices is appropriate given changes in housing markets and data availability.
3. A panel member raised that the existing CANCEIS framework already incorporates a degree of multivariate matching and encouraged ONS to ensure there is a thorough understanding of current imputation methodology before considering replacement methodologies. Another panel member suggested further use of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data for more than floor area and room counts, especially with growing interest in energy-efficient housing from consumers.
4. A panel member reflected on previous research on stock versus flow weighting in house price indices and noted that while stock-weighted measures may offer conceptual advantages in some circumstances. They suggested re-visiting the topic as market structures evolve. Another panel member stated that in the EU, estimation for new builds use both frameworks. Mr Fitzner commented that this is a topic of growing interest to users and the house prices team were asked to bring some more information on this at the next meeting.

6. Any other business

1. Publication of papers
   • Presentation to be published alongside the minutes except for the update on rail indices due to sensitivity. 
2. Review of Terms of Reference
   • Ms Rifah Abdullah requested feedback on the proposed updates to the terms of reference to be sent by correspondence. She confirmed that none of the proposed changes impact the business and responsibilities of the panel.
   • Panel members queried the length of time a member can serve on the panel. Ms Abdullah confirmed that on further discussions with UK Statistics Authority, that this is not a strict requirement especially as the specialist knowledge required for the technical panel limits the pool of applicants. They highlighted as long as panels are transparent about membership lengths and have open requirement processes, there is flexibility on tenure.
   • Panel members raised that it would be ideal to have a dedicated agenda item on horizon scanning once a year to properly give time to discuss topics.
3. Next panel meeting was confirmed.

Actions:

• Mr Greenhough to take away additional aspects of rail fares to investigate.
• Mr Greenhough to take panel suggestions on used hybrid and electric cars, such as creating a ‘missing’ variable and EV-specific quality characteristics (such as battery life) to investigate further.
• Ms Ditchfield to takeaway panel feedback on deep dive research.
• Mr Gatabaki and House Prices team to bring house prices stock-versus-flow weighting information to September panel.
• Panel Chair and Secretariat to consider annual horizon-scanning agenda item for future.
• Secretariat to review and action feedback on panel membership and Terms of Reference.

Please note: AI has been involved in the production of this content. The content has been reviewed by ONS prior to publication.