Campaigners have urged ministers to redouble their efforts to deliver on the promise of the UK-EU summit after it emerged confidence in the UK economy had plunged over the last decade.
Confidence in the strength of the UK economy has fallen from 45% in May 2015 to 28% a decade later following a cost-of-living crisis, Brexit, Covid-19 and geopolitical upheaval, according to a long-running survey.
The Barclays 10 Years Of Spend report found found 66% of consumers pay more attention to their budget than they did a decade ago.
The study, based on billions of transactions and more than 200,000 consumer confidence surveys since 2015, found just under half (45%) of UK adults say they do not feel better off than they did 10 years ago.
And Barclays has monitored consumers’ efforts to find value in their weekly supermarket shop since 2023, finding that the percentage of shoppers who say they are trying to reduce their grocery spending has averaged 65%, peaking at 73% in April last year.
Responding to embargoed reports that confidence in UK economy has fallen from 45% in 2015 to 28% a decade later, according to a Barclays survey, Naomi Smith, Chief Executive of Best for Britain, said:
“To bring down supermarket prices and cut energy bills for families across the UK, the government must redouble its efforts to deliver on the promises from the summit with the EU last month. To grow the economy and boost GDP, no other policy option even comes close to what extending alignment on agri-food with Europe to all industries could deliver.
“Removing trade barriers with our nearest neighbours could see up to 1.5% GDP growth, much of it felt in the north and Midlands, while shielding us from the negative impacts of Trump's tariffs - and our polling clearly demonstrates that British voters expect the government to prioritise improving EU trade, and think they aren’t going far enough.”