Consumer Optimism Tracker
The weekly read on UK consumer optimism –
how Britain feels, who feels it, why, and what brands should do next.
09 Oct 2026Published 23 Oct 2026Konfidant Week 40Read time: 2 min
UK Consumer Optimism is at +28 as the news creeps back in and nights in become the norm
As we try to combat constant fears of fuel prices, energy bills and potential tax increases, we turn to home comforts for a sense of safety.
Net optimism, four-week rolling · 15 Oct 2021 to 9 Oct 2026
Four-week headline +28 · 3 points higher than last year
Latest weekly signal +23 · 3 points lower than last year
Four-week headline +28
3 points higher than last year
What's changing
Mood | Dipping – negative headlines but Burnham softens the blow |
Savings | Under pressure – toughing it out for now but could be on the brink |
Me-time | Staying in – hunkering down and moving online |
Budget | What’s the catch? – we like Burnham’s pledges, doubt the sums |
Connection | Short on smiles – relying on shared telly favourites to keep conversations going |
Half-term | Keeping it simple – close to home, one good day out |
Shields are up – our worlds are shrinking and we need small joys
Burnham has been on a roll with a slew of crowd-pleasing policies, with proposals to remove VAT from electricity bills, capping bus fares at £2 and introducing a National Care Service reaching a net positivity of 57%, 45% and 40% respectively. The catch: however much we like the sound of what the PM has to offer, 46% of us don’t understand how the plans will be paid for, and 45% of us think they will cost more than the country can afford.
It doesn’t help that petrol costs and energy bills are still on our minds, with fears on both up 9 points from October 2025. Savings are really starting to feel under pressure – we’re trying to offset these fears by staying in and moving online, which is safe but short of the fun that comes with socialising in person.
Luckily, autumn also comes with familiar telly favourites like Celebrity Traitors and Strictly, so we can keep up our communities from the safety of our sofas. Parents are also keeping things closer to home with their half-term plans, looking to lock in a few highlights in advance and welcoming some much-needed relaxation with their immediate family for the rest of the week.
“Finances are really starting to feel under pressure – brands need to find a way to fit in with how we’re feeling, not fight it. As the nation moves inside, make this feel like a choice they want to make, and make sure that a day out that we’ve been looking forward to counts.”
Laura Gillespie, Co-Founder, Konfidant
Brand actions: protect us and give us some light
Days are getting shorter and evenings belong on the sofa – help us create cosy for the longer nights and some highlights for the photo reel:
- Create cosy – make warmth affordable and show new ways of finding value that have immediate impact
- Help foster connection – make nights in feel special for the whole family and create something to talk about
- Make the peak days count – prove us right and make standout moments that lift us out of the ordinary
About the data
- The measure
- Every week we ask around 2,000 people across the UK how optimistic they feel about life – not only about money. Consumer Optimism subtracts the share who feel pessimistic from the share who feel optimistic. Alongside the survey we follow a community of 50 UK households, which is where the why comes from. The headline is a four-week rolling score, so one noisy week can't move the story.
- Sample and method
- Around 2,000 UK adults aged 18+, surveyed online and weighted by age, gender, region and social grade.
- Current wave
- n=9,080. Fieldwork: 07 Oct 2026.
- Question
- “Please click below to indicate how optimistic you are feeling about life in general at the moment.” The question scale includes the following responses: Very optimistic (Optimistic) Quite optimistic (Optimistic) Neither optimistic nor pessimistic (Neutral) Quite pessimistic (Pessimistic) Very pessimistic (Pessimistic) The Optimism net score is calculated as percentage optimistic minus percentage pessimistic.
- Headline score
- Four-week rolling average, around 8,000 interviews. Percentage-point change against the same four weeks last year.
- History
- Weekly since March 2020.
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