Housing crisis could become ‘housing disaster’ as rents rise

A third of tenants are spending more than half of their take-home pay on rent as the housing crisis risks becoming a “housing disaster”. A study by SpareRoom, one of Britain’s biggest rental websites, found that 34% of tenants were having to pay the majority of their monthly salary to landlords. The overwhelming majority were paying more than 30%. The company describes people who spend more than a third of their take-home pay on rent as being “severely rent burdened”, which means they may struggle to afford other essentials such as food and transport. Meanwhile, a report by debt charity StepChange has said that private renters are almost twice as likely to be struggling with problem levels of debt as the general population. It added: “The private rented sector is now unaffordable, inaccessible and insecure for those on the lowest incomes.” The Times (£)The Guardian