The Bank's inflation survey changed hands and ran twice

Victoria Shinder24 September 2026, 20:301 min read

The Bank of England's quarterly Inflation Attitudes Survey, which measures public attitudes to inflation and awareness of the Bank's work, has a new provider. Following a competitive re-tendering, Savanta took over the survey from August 2026. To assess the effect of the change, the August round was run in parallel by both Ipsos and Savanta.

What it means

A survey that feeds into how a central bank reads inflation expectations is a time series first and a survey second, and a provider change threatens the series rather than the round. Fieldwork method, panel composition and question delivery all move the level, and a jump that comes from the contract rather than from the public would be indistinguishable in the published number.

Running both providers over the same period is the only way to put a figure on that, and publishing the fact alongside the results is what lets an outside reader keep comparing August 2026 with the previous decade. It is a small piece of statistical housekeeping that decides whether five years of data stay usable.