The average household in London forks out over £14 every day, just to keep a roof over their heads: a bit more if they’re renting, a bit less if paying off a mortgage.

That’s according to the ONS, which recorded weekly budgets of an average of 26,450 households between 2011 and 2013.

The cost of living has been one of the key political issues of the coalition government. Households with children saw the cost of living rise by 2.4 per cent on average last year, according to the ONS, and by 2.7 per cent for those without children, while wages stayed the same. In fact a major IFS report published last week found that household incomes had only just returned to pre-recession levels: a family with two children is now earning an average of £31,000 after tax, breaking the level seen in 2007-08 before the grip of the recession took hold.

So what has that meant for our purse strings?

The ONS Living Costs and Food survey published a few months ago, measured household budgets over three years in the middle of the post-2008 recession. The study throws everyone together - from the single professional, to the family of four - with an average household emerging as one with 2.4 adults.