Even by the standards of the past 18 months where all forecasts have been shown to be over-optimistic, the leap in CPI inflation between March and April from 7% up to 9% is a startling one. Here’s the ONS summary page.
As every news broadcaster is reminding us, it’s the highest rate for 40 years (March 1982, it was at 9.1% on remodeled figures because CPI wasn’t used as a measure in the 1980s).
RPI is at a staggering 11.1% and CPIH is at 7.8%. If you’re confused by the different ways of measuring inflation (you should be!) there’s a useful outline here [PDF].
You can find out more about how this affects your housing costs here (including a personal calculator).