Key workers locked out of renting in London – research
Renting in London is impossible for a range of key workers, with the median private rent in Inner London worth 106% of a teaching assistant’s salary, according to new research.
Analysis of 15 key and essential worker roles by campaign group Generation Rent shows that not a single borough of Inner London is affordable for roles across education, healthcare, social care, construction, retail, commerce, and hospitality.
Generation Rent is calling on candidates for the London mayoralty to demand powers to control rents and commit to building many more social homes in the capital if they win in May.
A home is considered affordable if it costs 30 percent or less of a person’s income. The average proportion of incomes required to cover the market-rate rent for the median one-bedroom home is more than 100% of teaching assistants’ incomes, and exactly 100 percent of kitchen assistants’ incomes.
Not a single one of Greater London’s 32 boroughs is affordable for people working in jobs such as bus drivers, care workers, cleaners, community nurses, hairdressers, painters and decorators, sales assistants and teaching assistants.
Teaching assistants experienced the most affordability issues of the roles analysed in this research – whose most affordable London borough is Sutton (62% of income spent on median rents) and least affordable is Westminster, with almost one and a half (145%) times their income required to cover average rents.
For the five lowest-paid jobs, there are four boroughs – the City of London, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster – where average rent costs more than the entire salary.
Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: ‘Just a few years ago we were clapping on our doorsteps every week for key workers. Now they risk being driven out of our city because of soaring rents. For communities to survive, local people must be able to stay healthy, receive an education, find a safe home to live in and purchase basic goods. But, if those working in vital jobs cannot afford to live in the area, everyone loses out.
‘The current cost of renting crisis is devastating London’s communities. It is vital that England’s metro mayors have the power to slam the brakes on local rents and give our key workers the breathing space they need to live and work in their community. It is also vital that the mayor and the government build more affordable homes in the capital and increase how much social housing is available.’
Image: Giammarco Boscaro
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