Average rents in Peterborough account for 40% of monthly income, say new figures

Tenants in Peterborough are spending an average of 40 per cent of their monthly income paying the rent on their homes, according to new figures.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the average rent in Peterborough was £895 a month in May.

Yet separate ONS show the median wage for the same month was £2,215 in the area – which means rent accounted for 40 per cent of the monthly income for an average individual.

In the East of England, the average rent was £1,143. It accounted for 47 per cent of the £2,439 median wage.

The figures are based on individual wages – cohabiting couples or those living in house shares will see rent shared between multiple wages.

Rent in Peterborough has increased eight per cent from £827 a year ago, and has jumped 48 per cent from £604 when records started in 2015.

Across England, rent has increased nine per cent from last year and 35 per cent since 2015.

Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: "Prices in the shops may have stopped rising so quickly, but renters are still seeing our single biggest cost go up faster than our incomes.

"Landlords can raise the rent as high as they think they can get away with and use the threat of a no-fault eviction to bully their tenants to accept it.

He added: "We won't fix the cost of the rent crisis unless the next government acts to slam the brakes on these runaway rents."

He said more homes were needed alongside protections against unaffordable rent increases.

Polly Neate, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said: "Successive governments have failed to build the social rent homes we desperately need and private rents are continuing to rocket as a result.

"Every day we hear from people who are forced to cough up money they simply don’t have just to keep hold of an overpriced and often shoddy rental."

She said the next government must urgently ban Section 21 "no-fault" evictions, limit in-tenancy rent increases and extends notice periods.

"But long-term, the only way to take the heat off private renting is to invest in a new generation of genuinely affordable social homes with rents tied to local incomes."