The latest Family Spending Survey has been released by the Office for National Statistics which suggests the average weekly household spending remained level at £528.90 in the financial year ending 2016.
Low-income households continued to spend a higher proportion of their expenditure on food and energy when compared with households with a higher income. UK households spent more than £45.00 a week on restaurants and hotels for the first time in 5 years.
Average weekly spending on alcohol, tobacco and narcotics fell below £12.00 for the first time and over half of money spent on communication was spent on a mobile phone-related cost. Households spent an average of £2.40 a week on household appliances. In 2015/16, of all households 97% owned a washing machine and 93% owned a microwave. On the other hand, only 56% of households owned a tumble dryer and less than half of households owned a dishwasher (45%).
In the financial year ending 1997, only 16% of UK households owned a mobile phone. By 2015/16, this increased by 79 percentage points to reach 95%. To put this into context, 95% of UK households also have central heating, suggesting that communication devices such as mobile phones are now viewed as a necessity.