EXCLUSIVE: England’s poorest private renters are struggling to afford a weekly food shop, with households left with just £7 or less a day after rent and basic bills, grim research shows
England’s poorest private renters are struggling to afford a weekly food shop, with households left with just £7 or less a day after rent and basic bills, grim research shows.
An estimated 372,652 private renting households have less than £50 a week to spend after paying for rent, council tax, water and energy bills – this is just £7 or less a day, according to analysis by Shelter.
The homelessness charity warned this means the poorest renters cannot afford the average cost of a weekly food shop at £50.60, let alone the extra cost of basic daily necessities such as food, clothing, internet and travel costs, including commuting to work or taking children to school. Polling released alongside the study shows nearly a quarter (23%) of working private renters say they have no savings and would be immediately unable to pay their rent if they lost their job.
Shelter said the situation is worsening, with the number of households with less than £50 a week left after paying their rent and essential bills having increased by nearly a third (31%), or 87,358 households since 2021/22.
Self-employed hairdresser Jane, 53, who currently lives in a private rental in Romford with her two daughters, 11 and 19, said her family have endured appalling conditions since moving into the property in 2019.
The mum, who has to wipe mould off the walls every day, fears she won’t be able to cover the cost of food after her landlord slapped her with a £400 rent increase from next month.
Jane said she fears being evicted if her rent payments fall into arrears. “There’s not much money left after rent and bills,” she said. “We can barely afford essentials, let alone anything else. I have to budget just to afford food, and I’m already cutting back. We don’t have days out anymore and we’ve been walking instead of driving. I’m worried I won’t be able to put the heating on when it gets cold. I’m not sleeping at night – I’m worried all the time about becoming homeless as a result of the rent increase.
“A social home would change everything. It would be a home for life, and I wouldn’t have the fear of being evicted and having to move or a landlord increasing the rent suddenly. Plus, it’s genuinely affordable. I would be able to afford the rent, bills, food and heating instead of worrying and being left penniless. It would be like winning the lottery.”
Ahead of this month’s Budget, Shelter is urging Chancellor John Healey to accelerate the Government’s social housebuilding programme and provide more people with a long-term alternative to costly private renting. The charity argues that increasing the supply of social homes, where rents are linked to local incomes and are on average 67% lower than private rents, would reduce the number of families struggling.
It says one of the “biggest” barriers to preventing councils from building at scale is £31.8billion worth of housing debt that was transferred in 2012 as part of a council house financing agreement. Research carried out by Savills for Shelter shows that removing this “unfair debt burden” at the Budget on October 28 could unlock 284,000 social rent homes, with every £1bn of debt removed enabling 8,900 new homes to be delivered.
Mairi MacRae, acting chief executive at Shelter, said: “It is clear our housing system is on its knees when hundreds of thousands of private renters have £7 a day or less to feed and clothe themselves, after paying their rent and basic bills.
“Decades of poor political choices have driven down the supply of genuinely affordable social homes and pushed millions into expensive private renting. As their housing costs soar, more families are locked in survival mode scraping around for every penny to pay for life’s essentials. Those who constantly find themselves in the red face homelessness and destitution.
“If the government wants families to thrive, instead of barely survive, it must accelerate social housebuilding and provide an alternative to private renting. The Prime Minister should use his first Budget to remove the historic housing debt burden that’s holding councils back from building social homes.”
An MHCLG spokesman said: “We know that far too many people are struggling with their rent, which is why we are supporting delivery of the homes the country needs and investing £39 billion to give the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation.”
Savanta surveyed 3,337 adults (18+), including 1,461 private renters who are employed, between April 21 and May 8.