Household expenditure dropped in 2009.
Spending on necessities and luxuries fell last year.
Family spending fell last year for the first time in a decade due to the damaging affects of the recession, according to research from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The Living Costs and Food survey found that the average household spent £455 a week last year, which is £16 less than in 2008, marking the first fall ever recorded in the ONS’s ten year history.
The four areas where the most money were spent included transport, recreation and culture, housing, fuel and power and food where families spent an average of between £50 to £60 each week.
Giles Horsfield, the editor of the ONS report said: “This is the first annual decline in average UK household spend since the current method of recording was introduced in 2001-02, with higher expenditure on some housing related costs such as rent, electricity and gas offset by lower spending on mortgages”.
He continued: “Lower spending on diesel and fuel contributed to lower expenditure on transport, but reductions were also seen on vehicle purchases and public transport. Spending also fell on household goods and package holidays, but held up on sports admissions, cinema, theatre and concerts”.
Families in the top tenth income bracket cut their spending by 12% seeing their weekly spend drop from £1,044.90 to £922,10.
The survey also found that families in London spent more than poorer areas of the UK such as the North East. A family based in London spent an average of £552.30 each week where as a family in the North East spent £387.20.
Over 5,000 households participated in the survey by recording all of their household spending over a two week period.
