Families face a raft of price hikes from this week on everything from the cost of a bath to prescription medicines . Advice organisations fear consumers could be lulled into a ‘ false sense of security ’ by the current Consumer Price Index ‘ zero ’ measure of inflation and fail to budget for the coming rises . Increases are due in council tax , water bills , vehicle exise duty , NHS charges , stamps and even Sky television packages . Families face a raft of price hikes from this week , with increases due in council tax , water bills , vehicle exise duty , NHS charges , stamps and even Sky television packages ( picture posed by model ) Inflation is currently 0 per cent and is predicted to show a minus figure for March and April . The collapse in the cost of oil and petrol in the past year by around 50 per cent has had a dramatic impact on living standards - with Prime Minister David Cameron saying it has given families an extra £20 per week - while a supermarket price war has delivered savings on food . But many people have reason to dread the rising bills that will be arriving on their doormats and email inboxes over the coming weeks , many of which are being hiked by government departments and agencies . Hannah Maundrell , editor in chief of advice website money.co.uk , said : ‘ Whilst we can ’ t ignore the fact that some of our living costs are going down , such as food and mortgage rates , others are still going up . ‘ It really worries me that so much talk of 0 per cent inflation will make consumers sit on their hands in the false sense of security that prices for everything will remain static . ‘ Regardless of the economic terminology , consumers still need to save money wherever they can to accommodate rising costs in some areas of their finances. ’ The average council tax bill for a Band D property will go up by £16 a year to £1,484 from tomorrow , yet local authorities are still warning of massive cuts to services . Funding for arts , museums and libraries is on the chopping block , while support for home care for the elderly is also being squeezed . The NHS dental charge payable for a band one course of treatment , something like a filling , will increase by 30p from £18.50 to £18.80 ( picture posed by models ) For those who live in particularly valuable homes , new property taxes could be a sign of things to come with Labour and the Lib Dems going into the General Election with proposals to hit owners of expensive homes . The Lib Dems want a new annual ‘ mansion tax ’ on homes worth more than £2million , while Labour has proposed something similar in a policy that has angered some within the party , ranging from Lord Mandelson to MP Diane Abbott . Labour London MPs are angry at the prospect of money being raised from families in the South East through the new property tax to subsidise services , such as the NHS , in Scotland . Water bills will go up by an average of £5 a year to £401 for the average household from tomorrow as privatised firms continue to soak customers while paying millions to their , mostly foreign , shareholders . Also going up tomorrow is car tax , with Vehicle Excise Duty ( VED ) set to increase by up to £10 for some categories of vehicles , particularly larger cars with big engines and higher carbon emissions . For example , the first year VED rate for a band L car , such as an Audi Q7 or BMW X5 , will go up from £860 to £870 . In health , people who need regular prescriptions will see the charge rise from £8.08 to £8.20 , which is just under two per cent . At the same time , the cost of going to see the dentist for NHS care - if you can find one – is also on the rise . The NHS dental charge payable for a band one course of treatment , something like a filling , will increase by 30p from £18.50 to £18.80 . Band 2 treatment goes up by 80p to £51.30 and band 3 by £3.50 to £222.50 . Despite the price rises , many dentists claim the NHS fees fail to ensure they are able to make a decent living , with patients being pushed towards more expensive private care as a result . Yesterday , the cost of a simple first class stamp went up by a penny to 64p and second class rose by 1p to 54p . For larger items , the price of a large letter first class stamp up to 100g rose by 2p to 95p and the price of a large letter second class stamp up to 100g increased by 1p to 74p . And this is not the end of the pain . Sky recently announced a series of price rises , apparently to fund its multi-billion pound bill to buy the rights to Premier League football matches . From June , its popular family bundle , which does not even include the media giant ’ s sport channels , will rise by rise by £3 a month to £36 - £432 a year .
Price hikes are due on council tax , water , NHS charges , stamps and Sky TV . Fears public could be lulled into 'false sense of security ' by 'zero ' inflation . Collapse in oil prices has led PM to claim families have an extra £20 a week . But many people are dreading rising bills they will receive in coming weeks .