Inflation measure shake-up amid Jack Monroe row

Food poverty campaigner and chef Jack Monroe is claiming victory after statistics chiefs pledged to revise how they measure the cost of living.

Ms Monroe had complained that everyday essentials were going up in price by more than the official inflation rate, hitting poorer people hardest.

But she said the official way inflation is calculated failed to reflect this.

On Wednesday, the Office for National Statistics admitted that "one inflation rate doesn't fit all".

"Delighted to be able to tell you that the ONS have just announced that they are going to be changing the way they collect and report on the cost of food prices and inflation to take into consideration a wider range of income levels and household circumstances," Ms Monroe said in a tweet.

The ONS is understood to have been working on a way of broadening its measure of inflation for some time.

In a blog, head of inflation statistics Mike Hardie said: "We are currently developing radical new plans to increase the number of price points dramatically each month from 180,000 to hundreds of millions, using prices sent to us directly from supermarket checkouts.

"This will mean we won't just include one apple in a shop - picked to be representative based on shelf space and market intelligence - but how much every apple costs, and how many of each type were purchased, in many more shops in every area of the country."