ONS incorporates housing costs into CPI

The organisation said the new index, which will be known as the CPIH will be introduced next March, at the same time as the basket of goods used to measure CPI is reviewed. It will use changes in rental prices to measure the cost of owning, maintaining and living in a property. This will go some way to reducing the difference between CPI figures and Retail Prices Index figures, which already include a measure of housing costs. The ONS is currently consulting on how to close the gap further by changing the calculations underlying RPI to reduce or eliminate the difference resulting f...