Parents braced for the back-to-school rush have an extra problem on their plate this year, with the cost of a packed lunch rising by almost three times the UK rate of headline inflation.
A typical packed lunch, made up of a sandwich, an apple and a small yoghurt, costs £2.17 – 32p more a serving than a year ago and equivalent to £61 more over the course of the school year than last year, an 18% rise. That is £105 more a child for each school year than in 2018-19.
While school uniform cost increases have been relatively moderate this year, a pair of school trousers will cost almost £2 more a pair than in 2018, while a pair of kids’ trainers will cost more than £6.50 more than five years ago.
Many schools in the UK reopen their doors next week – most schoolchildren in Scotland returned last month – with households still facing cost of living pressures.
The still steep rise in basic lunchbox staples comes despite a welcome drop in the consumer prices index to 6.8% in July from 7.9% in June, which marked the first month since autumn 2021 in which UK prices increased less rapidly than wages. However, inflation is still more than three times the Bank of England’s 2% target.
Food price inflation did, in fact, slow to 14.9% in the year to July 2023 (down from 17.4% in the year to June 2023, and a peak of 19.2% in March) but was still higher than wage growth. The driving factor behind the headline rate of inflation in July was a reduction in gas and electricity bills, which rose dramatically in 2022.
While homemade lunches have risen in price, the increase in the cost of cafeteria lunches is running below inflation, at primary and secondary level. Cafeteria meals, although more expensive than a year ago, have increased in price by less than 4%.
The rise in the cost of school uniform garments recorded by the Office for National Statistics (which regularly publishes the price of 450 everyday items and services, tracking the average prices over five years) also comes in below annual inflation.
A pair of school trousers for children aged between five and 13 went from an average of £10 last year to £10.64 this school term, slightly below inflation but up £1.90 compared with the 2018 school year, whereas a school skirt for the same age group fell slightly to £8.30 since 2022.
The one big exception to this rule comes in gym class: a pair of kids’ sports trainers cost an average of almost £35 during the last ONS snapshot, taken in July, £6.57 more than in 2018, with the vast majority of the increase occurring in the past year.
