Two in five private renters in London are one missed payslip from being unable to pay rent

More than two in five working renters in London are just a paycheque away from being unable to pay their rent, new figures released today suggest.

An estimated 680,000 people privately renting in the capital don’t have enough savings to pay their rent for a month if they lost their job, according to research by housing charity Shelter.

The same data, based on a YouGov survey of more than 2,000 people, showed that at a national level, half of working renters do not have the funds to cover another month of their rent if they were to become unemployed.

“The severe lack of social homes means swathes of people are barely scraping by as they’re forced to compete for grossly expensive private rentals, because there is nothing else,” said Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter.

“With food and household bills continuing to surge, the situation is precarious for thousands of renters who are one paycheque away from losing their home, and the spectre of homelessness.”

The charity said the figures were some of the worst it has recorded since before the pandemic, as rents in London balloon. According to Shelter’s research, 60 per cent of private renters in London have seen their rent increase in the past year.

It comes after the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that London rents had risen by an average of 5.5 per cent in the 12 months to July this year, the highest annual rate since records began in 2006.

Earlier this month, City Hall published an analysis of future London rents, which found that the average asking price for a property in the city was likely to reach £2,700 per month next year.