Rocketing food prices, multiplying energy bills, tax hikes, wage stagnation – these, we are told, are the drivers of the cost of living crisis. Perhaps it’s understandable these factors have become the focus: it’s not normal for energy bills to be hitting £3,000 a year. The problem is, there’s another, much more familiar rip-off that’s driving the cost of living crisis, and is getting far less attention: rent.
The average rent in the UK for new lets is just under £1,000 per month. That’s up from an average of £886 per month in the first quarter of 2020 – an increase of 11%, the greatest that property listings company Zoopla has ever recorded in a single year. To put this in perspective, the cost of bread has risen by just 5% over that same period. The average monthly UK rent is now 37% of an average single earner’s pre-tax income, rising to an eye-watering 52% in London.
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