Accommodation has become the leading household budget item, far ahead of food. At the start of the 1980s, these two expenses represented 14% and 15% respectively of the household budget; in 2004, accommodation represented 21% and food 12%. This increase is a result of rising house prices, but also of the improving quality of housing. Spending on housing has increased by an average of 5.2% per year for 20 years. This high growth is largely due to rent, whilst spending on energy and, to a lesser extent, charges have moderated it. In 2004, rents represented three quarters of housing recurrent expenditures. Energy only represented 16%, two times less than twenty years earlier. The proportion of charges remained stable at around 10 %. The State and local authorities finance an increasing share of recurrent expenditures. Means-tested housing benefit paid to tenants went from 11% of the expenses in 1984 to 16% in 2004 and were focused on the poorest households. Since 2003, there has been a large rise in spending on housing, mainly due to increasing rents. Rises in energy prices, which generally had a moderating role during the past twenty years, further reinforced this rise in 2005.