Thursday 19 May 2022 04:19 PM Inflation graphic reveals how 1970s was 'decade of the price rise' trends now
The 1970s was a punishing time for Britain's households with mortgage payments rising by more than 500 per cent across the decade, electricity bills quadrupling and a pint of bitter tripling to 37p over the decade.
And this illustration from the Daily Mail on December 19, 1979 - just seven months after Margaret Thatcher became prime minister - provides an insight into a time arguably even worse than the present cost-of-living crisis.
But if prices were to follow a similar trajectory over the next ten years along the scale as shown in the 1970s graphic, our average monthly mortgage payments would go up from £700 to £4,300 (up 513 per cent) by 2032.
The price of a pint in the pub would rise from £4.07 to £13.68 in the UK or £4.84 to £16.26 in London (up 236 per cent) and the Ofgem energy cap for gas and electricity would rise from £1,971 to £7,167 (up 264 per cent).
In 1979 homeowners had seen a huge rise in the costs of goods and services with prices having more than trebled in a decade amid a crash in the standard of living following an inflation rate of 17 per cent over the previous year.
This illustration from the Daily Mail on December 19, 1979 provides an insight into the cost-of-living crisis during the 1970s
The graphic was above a story in the Daily Mail newspaper that day headlined 'Decade of the price rise', which said that 'if you've just taken out a mortgage, wear blue jeans and commute into London each day, you'll be feeling considerably poorer'
The article is shown in the context of a double-page spread about 1970s economics in the Daily Mail on December 19, 1979
At the time the 1970 £1 had become worth just 30p, and the Mail's article mourned that the 'days when a pair of jeans cost £2.50, a pint of bitter 11p and a two-week Spanish holiday for two only £126 have gone forever'.
The graphic was above a story headlined 'Decade of the price rise', which said that 'if you've just taken out a mortgage, wear blue jeans and commute into London each day, you'll be feeling considerably poorer'.
But the article added, tongue in cheek: 'On the other hand, cigarette, colour TV and washing machine addicts who spend a lot of time in hospital should be feeling considerably more affluent. Hospital beds are still free.'
The concept of a monthly rail season ticket for £59.20, which was the price in 1979 after a rise from £12.30 in 1970, is very much of the past - with even a short commute such as Guildford to London costing £392 a month today.
And the cost of a typical 55-litre tank of petrol in Britain is now £92.20 following the surge in oil and gas prices - up from £70.61 a year ago, and an astonishing rise on the 1979 figure of £6.32, which was itself up from £1.73 in 1970.
Surrounding the feature on the cost of living in the Daily Mail that day were a series of other articles about the economic situation of the 1970s, including one entitled: 'Credit cards and the plastic revolution'
This table looking at purchasing power of wages was also included in the double-page spread in the Mail in December 1979
The Mail's article also looked at items which had fallen in price over the 1970s, with the list including 'records and tapes, fridges, freezers, automatic washing machines, dishwashers, food mixers, cameras, contact lenses, gas bills
