High rents are preventing London workers actually living near their jobs in the capital, it\u2019s claimed.<\/p>\n
Londoners earning the National Living Wage of \u00a312.21 per hour would have to work 63 hours per week \u2013 not far off two full-time jobs \u2013 to keep within affordability guidelines and spend no more than 30% of their wages on housing costs, according to an analysis by flatshare site SpareRoom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If the Government does increase the National Living Wage to \u00a312.70 in the Budget, as has been reported, Londoners would still have to work 60 hours a week to spend no more than 30% of income on rent.<\/p>\n
The cheapest way to rent is in shared accommodation, and yet even those on the higher London Living Wage of \u00a314.80 per hour \u2013 which is optional, not mandatory for employers in the capital \u2013 would still need to work 52 hours per week to cover their rent.<\/p>\n
This means low-paid essential workers are having to spend more like 40% to 50% of their gross wages on rent. For example, a nursery assistant on an average annual salary of \u00a324,420 will spend 49% of their income on rent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
London rents have risen 37% over the past five years to \u00a3995 per month in Q3 2025. They first passed the \u00a3900 mark in late 2022, peaked in late 2023 at \u00a31,015 per month, and are now approaching \u00a31,000 once more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The table below shows average London salaries across five essential worker roles and the proportion of income spent on renting an average room in the capital. In all cases, it\u2019s far higher than the recommended 30%:<\/p>\n
SpareRoom director Matt Hutchinson says:\u201cIn her Budget, the Chancellor must address the housing crisis. While the Renters\u2019 Rights Act brings much needed protections for tenants it does nothing to tackle the problem of already unaffordable rents. Either the Government has to do more to help people meet the high cost of living, or it must look at creative ways to reduce rents quickly. Renters don\u2019t have time to wait for housebuilding targets to be met.<\/p>\n
\u201cLondon can\u2019t function without its essential workers; they\u2019re the lifeblood of the city but, increasingly, they\u2019re being priced out. Renter demand continues to build in suburban and commuter towns like Esher, Twickenham and Aldershot, as people head further afield in search of cheaper rents. But long, expensive commutes are not the answer to the capital\u2019s housing problems, and especially not for lower-paid shift workers who may be working long or antisocial hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a London problem, it\u2019s happening in other urban areas too. Cities rely on essential workers, as does the economy. This isn\u2019t just an issue for a handful of people, it\u2019s becoming a national epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"High rents are preventing London workers actually living near their jobs in the capital, it\u2019s claimed. Londoners earning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,53972,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-579317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-housing-shortage-affordability","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115573468850343168","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}