April doesn’t just mark the start of the new tax year – for many companies and organisations, it’s a prompt to put prices up.

Households will be hit with a multitude of price rises, with many bills going up in line with inflation.

Here’s what’s changing.

NHS prescriptions

The NHS prescription charge in England will increase from £9.15 to £9.35 per item.

In addition, the price of a three-month pre-payment certificate will go up from £29.65 to £30.25 (an increase of 60p), while a 12-month PPC will go up from £105.90 to £108.10 (an increase of £2.20).

TV licence

The TV licence fee will rise from £157.50 to £159 from April.

TV viewers who are blind or severely sight impaired are entitled to a 50% discount meaning that from 1 April, their licences will cost £79.50, a rise of 75p from £78.75.

Meanwhile, the cost of an annual black-and-white TV licence will rise by 50p from £53 to £53.50.

Council tax

Council tax is set to rise in April in about two-thirds of England’s local authority areas.

This will push bills to more than £2,000 for many people in the country for the first time.

You can check with your local council to see whether you’ll be affected by council tax increases.

Mobile phone tariffs

O2 mobile customers will see their bills go up by 1.4% from April.

The price rise is in line with January’s retail prices index (RPI) measurement of inflation, and applies to anyone who has signed an O2 contract since 23 January 2014.

Three is increasing prices by 4.5% for customers who joined or upgraded on or after 29 October 2020.

Vodafone uses the Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation – plus 3.9% – to work out how much to increase prices. This pricing strategy applies to upgrades or new contracts taken out after 9 December 2020.

Broadband contracts

Any new, renewing or upgrading BT and EE broadband, landline, and TV customers from 1 September 2020 will see annual price hikes by the CPI measure of inflation plus 3.9% from 31 March.

Sky customers will face price hikes of up to £72 a year, depending on which Sky products they have and when they signed their contract.

Virgin Media put up prices from 1 March.

Energy bills

The energy price cap will rise by £96 from £1,042 to £1,138, from 1 April.

For customers paying by prepayment meter, the level will rise by £87 from £1,070 to £1,156.

The energy price cap is the maximum amount a customer with typical energy usage on a standard or default energy tariff can be charged each year.

Vehicle excise duty

The government will uprate vehicle excise duty (VED) rates for cars, vans and motorcycles in line with RPI from 1 April 2021.

VED will remain at £0 for electric cars and is unchanged for the least polluting vehicles. But for petrol and diesel cars, the tax will rise to £155 a year.

The tax for drivers of ‘premium cars’ costing more than £40,000 will rise to an eye watering £335 a year for the first five years of ownership.