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The affordability of private rented homes in England worsened last year as tenants’ incomes fell while paying sharply higher rents, according to official data.

The average household renting privately spent 36.3 per cent of its gross income on housing in the year ending in March 2024, the Office for National Statistics said on Monday, compared with 33.1 per cent a year earlier and well above the threshold of 30 per cent that the agency defines as affordable.

Driving the change was a 7.9 per cent rise in average rents to £1,232 a month, the highest rate of growth since comparable data was first published in 2015-16. The average monthly income of a household renting privately fell 1.5 per cent to £3,396 over the period, the ONS said.

“Affordability has tightened throughout the UK due to several factors, including rising mortgage rates, increased living costs and stagnant wage growth in some regions,” said Megan Eighteen, president of the Association of Residential Letting Agents.

She added that it was “vital” that policymakers addressed the underlying causes of rising rents, including the regulatory and financial pressure that has driven many landlords from the market.

The West Midlands saw the largest rise in the average proportion of income spent on rent — 24.7 per cent to 29.2 per cent — followed by the South West and London, the only two regions where affordability exceeded the 30 per cent threshold.

Affordability improved in the North East, North West, East Midlands and South East. While rents have risen across the board, differences in pay growth have driven the divergence among regions over the past year.

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Hannah Aldridge, senior research and policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation think-tank, said a “post-pandemic correction” had driven a sharp rise in rents in recent years.

Data for local areas is less reliable than the national and regional figures, but continued to show that the least affordable areas were concentrated in parts of central London such as Kensington and Chelsea, alongside Bath, Bristol and Trafford.

Ben Twomey, chief executive of campaign group Generation Rent, said renters faced “back-breaking” living costs and called on the government to “urgently give metro mayors all the powers they need to slam the brakes on rising rents”.