Renters Pay £30 a Week for Government Housing Failure

Inflation is one of those annoying things that you just have to accept and deal with - the official target is, after all, 2%. But that gives the government no excuse to allow rents to go up the way they have. Since 1998-99, when the government started collecting data on housing costs in the Family Resources Survey, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the measure they currently use for inflation, has risen by 38%. In the same period, the median weekly rent (according to the FRS) has gone up by 80%. If rents had just matched inflation, renters would be an average of £30 better off a week. That adds up to £1546 a year. Once you take into account the tax and national insurance on earning that extra money, the typical private renter household, which earns £26,052 per annum, could get away with working 8.7% less – 3.3 hours of a 37.5 hour working week. Read more on the Generation Rent website.