Meanwhile, the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) went up to 8.2% in the 12 months to June 2022, compared to 7.9% in May.

Rising prices for motor fuels and food made the largest upward contributions to the change in both the CPIH and CPI 12-month inflation rates between May and June 2022.

Housing and household services (principally from electricity, gas and other fuels, and owner occupiers' housing costs) also contributed significantly to the rise in CPIH.

The ONS has also published the latest House Price Index, which revealed that average house prices in the UK rose by 12.8% over the year to May 2022.

The average UK house price was £283,000 in May — £32,000 higher than this time last year.

Industry experts react to latest ONS inflation and HPI figures

Nigel Green, founder and CEO at deVere Group:

“The UK’s historic cost of living crisis has officially got even worse for families and businesses across the country, as inflation hit 9.4%.

“This shines the harsh spotlight again on how the Bank of England is failing the UK with its shamefully incompetent grip on the inflationary surge.

“It underscores that the central bank was complacent and passive about consumer prices last year when the country emerged from coronavirus lockdowns.

“The 9.4% inflation will likely prompt the UK’s central bank to decide on a 50-basis point hike at its August policy meeting.”

Paresh Raja, CEO at MFS:

"Political and economic uncertainty invariably fuels speculation that the property market will suffer, but we should be wary of predicting any radical shifts.

“Rising inflation and interest rates, coupled with political jousting within the Conservative Party, are clearly all factors that will affect the actions of many buyers and sellers across the market, but other factors are at play.

"The perennial undersupply of property plays a critical role in keeping prices high, and this is an issue that will take many, many years to tackle.

“Moreover, we have seen throughout the pandemic that despite a great deal of uncertainty, house prices have risen — this is because many homebuyers and investors often seek out the security of bricks and mortar as an asset to own, a reflection of the long-term trend of property prices rising and rising.

“This is why we should not be too quick to predict a fall, but instead stay alert to the challenges at hand and focus on make informed, diligent decisions before any property investment."

Ross Gandy, UK managing director at Estateguru:

“Yet another increase to inflation spells bad news for the UK’s SMEs; small businesses with strict budgets are under growing financial pressure, contributing to a rise in demand for working capital.

“However, somewhat ironically, it becomes much harder for SMEs to secure funds during times of economic challenge — financial turbulence causes nervousness among traditional banks and their strict lending criteria often automatically blocks SMEs from securing the funding they need.

“Small businesses that find themselves in this situation can turn towards alternate lending as a second option, which use a holistic approach to underwrite each application on a case-by-case basis, factoring in a SME’s needs to find a solution that’s most effective for the business.

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“Alternate lenders recognise that the tick-box method used by traditional banks isn’t inclusive to start-up businesses still finding their feet, and they instead adopt a more considered approach to generate the best result for their client.”

Ed Rimmer, CEO at Time Finance:

“While we have become used to the news of inflation rising month-on-month, more and more businesses will feel the strain and struggle to make ends meet, and the latest increase will only make this worse.

“When inflation hit 9.1% in June, one in ten businesses we spoke to told us that they’re unable to meet their financial commitments, and one in five said they were struggling to remain competitive without increasing their own costs.

“These were worrying statistics at the time, and it's unsettling to consider how much worse this will get if the government doesn't intervene soon and provide businesses with some breathing room to regain financial control.

“Businesses simply don’t have the financial capacity to absorb their rising costs, and without proper and viable support their overheads will be squeezed ever tighter.

“Not only will they struggle to keep up with operational costs such as paying their employees or suppliers, and buying stock or materials, but some sadly just won’t survive.”

Douglas Grant, group CEO at Manx Financial Group:

“Today’s unwavering rise in inflation yet again signals just how difficult the remaining half of the year is going to be.

“We believe that demand for working capital, which has already reached unprecedented levels, will soar even further, as more businesses desperately require liquidity provisions to counteract rising interest rates, supply chain issues, increases in wages and additional pandemic-induced headwinds.

“Having successfully deployed multiple relief schemes — BBLS, CBILS and RLS – for SMEs throughout the pandemic, the UK government should, in our opinion, now turn their attention towards a permanent loan scheme to help leverage businesses going forward.

“The importance of a permanent scheme cannot be understated; it could act as the fundamental difference between make or break for many companies, and in turn, our economy.

“Now is a vital time for the government to work together with traditional and alternative lenders to guarantee the future of our SMEs and to ensure the successes of these emergency schemes are not wasted.

“SMEs would be well-advised to take stock of their current capital structure and if appropriate, access fixed-term, fixed-rate loans to prevent additional exposure to an increasingly volatile lending market.”

Tomer Aboody, director at MT Finance:

“With such low numbers of properties coming to the market, it's not surprising prices continue to rise as buyers compete for limited stock.

“With interest rates rising, along with inflation and house prices, first-time buyers and movers are facing even tougher conditions with the market running away from them.

“Getting more properties onto the market is key; a restructure of stamp duty might encourage potential sellers to enter the market knowing that the cost of moving — whether upsizing or downsizing — is lower, and therefore more affordable.”

Iain McKenzie, CEO at The Guild of Property Professionals:

“Any rational person might expect that the cost of living crisis would be dragging house prices downwards, but it seems the opposite is happening in the topsy-turvy property market.

“There seems to be no end to the soaring demand for properties that is propelling prices skyward; with rental prices at astronomical levels, it still makes sense for many people to try to get on the property ladder.

“The average home now costs £32,000 more than it did this time last year — with wages falling to keep pace with inflation, lower disposable incomes could make it more difficult for first-time buyers to save for ever larger deposits.”