Life for Britain’s tenants is going from bad to worse. What can be done?
Sarah* had been living with a friend in the same rental flat in south-west London for the past three years. But when she came to renew her tenancy this June, the agency asked for an extra £217 a month – a staggering 14% increase.
The 26-year-old tried to negotiate, citing a multitude of problems – from an ongoing mice infestation to security issues with the flat’s shared entrance. Within 30 minutes of her email, the agent had advertised the property on RightMove, ready to be snapped up by the highest bidder. The landlord would not negotiate the price, she was told, leaving her with no choice but to pay up, or move out.
Britain’s dire rental market is nothing new. Stories like Sarah’s are so common now that for jaded readers perhaps they verge on the banal; insert any name, age, and your choice of British metropolis, and it would fit the formula. But somehow, the rental market has reached a heady new state of crisis.
Private rents are growing by the fastest annual rate since 2016, according to the Office for National Statistics. London has long been at the coalface of these astronomical price hikes – the median monthly rent in the capital is now nearly twice that of the rest of England. But even areas across the UK that were once seen as affordable, such as Scotland and the east Midlands, are weathering some of the highest annual rent increasessince records began.
Viewed through an affordability lens, the picture looks even bleaker. Across the country, young people and those from poorer backgrounds are now losing at least 30% of their monthly income to rent. In fact, only those in the top wealth bracket in London are now able to contribute less than that.
Of course, tenancies were already unaffordable and insecure before this
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