Consumer Optimism Tracker
The weekly read on UK consumer optimism –
how Britain feels, who feels it, why, and what brands should do next.
16 Oct 2026Published 23 Oct 2026Konfidant Week 41Read time: 2 min
UK Consumer Optimism is at +26 as we look closer to home for comforts
Whilst we brace for Budget and rising bills, we draw our world in closer and welcome familiar autumnal distractions.
Net optimism, four-week rolling · 22 Oct 2021 to 16 Oct 2026
Four-week headline +26 · 1 point higher than last year
Latest weekly signal +22 · no change on last year
Four-week headline +26
1 point higher than last year
What's changing
Mood | Sliding – bracing ourselves for the cold and the associated bills |
Living alone | Hit the hardest – no one to share the bills or the worry |
Bills | Less to show for the same spend – petrol hurts the most |
Budget | Burnham’s steadiness will do – we’d rather not ask who pays |
Chat | Anything but the news – Halloween, half-term and the telly instead |
Christmas | Smaller, closer, fuller – Christmas narrows to just us |
Nights draw in and bigger bills loom – so we’re drawing our world in tight
Fuel and heating costs are hitting us the hardest they have since April, and 55% of us are feeling as though we’re spending too much, too fast with little to show for it.
Those living alone are feeling this the hardest, with net optimism down 3 points from October 2025 – costs and worries are carried single-handedly, and each evening in is one less chance of company. The savings pot is also slimming, with only 40% of us able to top up our savings, as opposed to 43% last year.
However, we are making the most of it by optimising what has been a mild October to keep our heating off and gardening done, and the autumn rhythm provides some escape from our worries – Halloween, half-term and familiar TV favourites are preferred topics of conversation and connection over the news.
Burnham’s steadiness is reassuring, as only 2 weeks out from the Budget announcement, only 41% of us know that it is coming out, versus the 54% that were aware of it this time last year. We want bold action but not the bill that could come with this. Looking forward to Christmas, the spirit is high as we keep our focus tight – just us around the table, finding a fuller feeling without breaking the bank.
“The usual winter worries are on the horizon, and we’re turning to the familiar for distractions and comforts – brands should help to take some of the burden and make home comforts and local, low-cost plans with loved ones feel like a choice rather than a necessity.”
Alison Bainbridge, Co-Founder, Konfidant
Brand actions: brace for the bills, find room for joy
With the Budget on the horizon, we need brands to steady us and offer us some escape:
- Toasty, not costly – offer warmth and comfort that doesn’t trouble the meter
- Light relief – give us a Halloween laugh, and Bonfire Night and Diwali sparkle to lift the mood
- Keep it calm – easy advice, easy options and ways to spread the cost
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=9,087. Fieldwork: 14 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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