Martin Lewis explains which group of people is 'hit hardest' by inflation

James Rodger
·2-min read

Martin Lewis has explained which groups are "hardest hit" by inflation as he grilled Jeremy Hunt today. BBC Sounds podcast host Mr Lewis joined Susanna Reid on ITV Good Morning Britain today, where they quizzed Mr Hunt, the Chancellor, on inflation.

Appearing via video link, Mr Hunt said: "The Bank of England will start to cut interest rates, as you know they decide that independently, when they are confident that it is sustainably at its target. So today is good news for mortgage holders because it does give people more confidence that inflation is returning to more normal levels.

"Precisely when it happens, obviously, I don't know. But the Governor of the Bank of England has been very clear that the next move in interest rates will be down and he doesn't expect it to be too far away."

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The Chancellor, who delivered his Budget and Spring Statement back in March, also said: "Even though the inflation rate has come down and people will be relieved about that, the level of prices is still a lot higher than it was one or two years ago.

"Now obviously for many people, their wages will also have gone up in that period, but overall we are not expecting them to catch up fully until the first part of next year, that's when living standards will get back to their pre-pandemic levels."

Speaking to ITV viewers, Martin said: "Renters are probably the hardest hit by all of this, unlike mortgages where you can get all of the big banks in a room and bang their heads together, you can't do that because it's an individual relationship between landlords and renters.

"It is quite difficult to feel the benefit of lower inflation because lower inflation means that prices are still rising, perhaps a more accurate phrase would be that people are stopping feeling increased pain."

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