We're updating our Cost of Living Tracker each quarter as new figures are released. This is the first update since we launched the tracker in March this year.
What's new?
Inflation is still rising, although not as steeply as it did last month. The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 7.8% between April 2022 and April 2023. This means that households have to deal with an even more expensive basket of goods and services to achieve the same standard of living as they did in 2020.
Inflation impact - the estimated percentage change in spending for London households, if buying the same goods and services (April 2020 - April 2023)
When looking at households according to their income, we see that rising inflation started affecting households in different income quintiles unevenly in March last year and the gap has only grown since then. Currently, households in the lowest income quintile need to spend over a quarter more (27%) in order to achieve the same standard of living as in March 2020. And although prices have risen for everyone, households with the highest incomes need to spend less overall (22%) in order to be able to buy the same products and services as they did in March 2020.
