Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Latest Office National Statistics (ONS) data has shown that private renters typically spend 36.3%, or £1,232 in monthly rent, of their income on an average-priced let home in England.
This is higher than Wales and Northern Ireland, where 25.9%, or £702, and 25.3%, or £751, of pay was spent on rent last year, respectively, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The ONS says that private rental affordability has fluctuated since 2016 but remained above the 30% affordability threshold in England, while it moved below the threshold over time in Wales to reach similar levels to Northern Ireland. Rental is considered affordable if a household spends 30% or less of its gross income on rent.
In London, the private rental affordability ratio was 41.6% last year, adding that the local authorities with the least affordable rents were all in the capital.
The least affordable local authorities outside London were urban centres such as Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, Brighton and Trafford, or areas with high numbers of commuters to London, such as Sevenoaks and Watford.
It adds that seven of the ten most affordable local authorities were in the North East, with one each in Wales, the East Midlands, and the North West.
The most affordable local authority was Hartlepool, where rent was 15.9% of median income in 2024. The least affordable was Kensington and Chelsea, where rent was 74.3% of median income last year.