Having cut the number of official' house price indices produced by different government departments, the Coalition is now attempting to produce just one definitive rental index - and early results have been announced.
In a statement littered with the word experimental' - a kind of government health warning suggesting these figures may not be produced on a continuing basis - the Office for National Statistics says rents paid by tenants across Britain in the private sector rose only 1.0 per cent in the 12 months to June.
Looking at the individual countries, rents grew 1.0 per cent in England, 1.1 per cent in Scotland and a mere 0.2 per cent in Wales.
As is so often the case, London's rental market skews overall averages. If the capital was taken out of the Great Britain figure, the national rent increase in the year to June would be a mere 0.7 per cent.
The new figures are provided in the Index of Private Housing Rental Price, or IPHRP, which has similarities to other data collected by the ONS stretching back to 2005. However, the ONS warns that the current way of collecting figures may change before a final methodology is agreed.
In other words, the continuing dispute over which index is correct and why has some way to run yet...
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Comments
I wish them luck with this but they are doomed to failure. My agency is in a City with a population of 160,000 and rents actually vary by area - within the city. How on God's earth can there be any kind of national rental index
Good point. How long can something be experimental for A bit of conviction is needed.
It seems a bit strange that they would try to produce one definitive index but then not have the confidence in it and keep saying that it's experimental. It's either definitive or it isn't, and in this case, it seems as though it isn't!