UK inflation falls to 3.4%, but rents rise at record pace; HMRC halts plans to turn off tax helpline over summer – as it happened

UK inflation falls to lowest rate since September 2021, helped by slowdown in rising food prices

• HMRC halts plan to close tax helpline for six months a year
• Full story: UK inflation falls to 3.4% in February to lowest level for two and a half years

Rachel Reeves MP points out that prices are still high, at a time when households are also being hit by rising taxes and higher mortgage rates.

The shadow chancellor says:

After fourteen years of chaos and uncertainty under the Conservatives working people are worse off. Prices are still high, the tax burden is the highest it has been in seventy years and mortgage payments are going up.

Now Rishi Sunak is putting forward a reckless 46 billion unfunded tax plan to abolish National Insurance that would risk crashing the economy and re-running the disastrous Liz Truss experiment.