Private rents in England are rising by an average of almost £300 a year, Shelter said this morning.
In one area in the south-east, Elmbridge, rents have gone up over £2,000 in a year.
The organisation says that as a result, many tenants are in a ‘rent trap’ with little or nothing left to save for a home of their own.
‘The Rent Trap’, a new report from Shelter, analyses Government figures to find that average private rents rose by 2.8% from 2011 to 2012, equivalent to an increase of £297 in a year on a typical rented home. In the same period, the average wage in England did not rise at all.
In one in seven local authorities (14%) across the country, rents rose by the equivalent of more than £500 in a year. In six local authority areas, there were rent rises of more than £1,500 in a year, with rents in Surrey Heath and Elmbridge rising at the fastest rate.
A survey of 4,300 renters commissioned by Shelter found that more than half (55%) say that after paying for rent and essential bills, they have just £100 or less left over each month for everything else.
Three in four renters (72%) say that they are only able to put aside £50 or less each month, while more than half (58%) say they are not able to save any money at all.
The areas in England with the fastest rising rents are Surrey Heath (14.1% rise equivalent to £1,756 per year); Elmbridge (14.1% rise of £2,178); Merton, London (13.7%, £1,805); Rutland (11.6%, £859); Wandsworth (11.4%, £1,845); Gravesham, south-east (11.1%, £823); Warwick (11%, £799); West Oxfordshire (10.8%, £1,096); South Bucks (10.3%, £1,736); Lambeth (9.8%, £1,477).
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: “This report reveals the huge scale of the rent trap holding back young people and families up and down the country.
“Rising rents are leaving people with little or nothing to save at the end of each month, giving them little chance of ever saving enough to climb on to the property ladder.
“The renters we speak to have never been less hopeful. A relentless stream of rent rises means that most feel they will never move on from a life paying ‘dead money’ to landlords, in a home that they can’t make their own. And for some, rising rents have more immediate consequences – not enough money to spend on food, fuel or other essentials.
“Unless something changes, the chances of the next generation getting a home to call their own look increasingly bleak.
“The Government needs to show young people and families exactly how it plans to dismantle the rent trap for good.”
Shelter used Valuation Office Agency figures for its report.
* Next Monday, Kay Boycott of Shelter is due to be appearing before a select committee of MPs.
The director of Shelter’s communications, she will, she says, be telling them about the “state of private renting in our country”.
She has appealed to tenants to get in touch with their experiences, asking them: “Have you had a bad landlord? Been forced to pay huge fees to a letting agent? Have you been unable to find somewhere affordable to rent?”
She adds: “The more evidence we have on how renting must be better, the stronger our evidence will be.”
Although Boycott is only asking for negative stories, there seems no reason why something a little more positive should not be posted up here:
Comments
Not that what I or anyone says will make a difference here it will all be too late for most of us....
In my case , based south Oxfordshire, Rent is high i know and have to live with it. My big problem is as a single father and a self employed gardener who does ok ish and looks after his son as best i can can NOT get any where NOT even on the council list ( been on for over 9 months now)
Problem for me is i have no guarantor both parents passed away when i was young ) i have a good base of clients locally I pay tax and now need to move house. there are only ever 3-5 house on council each 2 weeks and im in band 3 of 5 NOT a Chance best position i got was 43 lol ) so look private. I have saved up over years some monies to just put down deposit and months rent + bit to get by next month. But NO Agent will touch me. My credit is Very Good 9.5/10 on experian but they need you to earn at least £22K year or pay 6-11 months upfront.
Its a big joke Im happy to pay the rents Council say move to larger area away from my 10 radius im looking so that means loose local clients for work and son of 9 change schools again.
Some times makes you think why bother this country is becoming a joke ( government that is )
sorry my 2p worth
Is it not about time that Shelter started worrying and concentrating more on helping homeless people onto their feet.............
And when Shelter get their way with no agent fees being allowed then the cost of rents will rise even higher. Be interesting to see what they have to say then and all us EA's & LA's will have the answer for them but of course the pillocks will not see it in any event as caused by them.
To Kay Boycott of Shelter:
Can you ask the following questions:
Have you had a bad tenant? Been forced to pay huge fees to a bailiff to evict them? Have you been unable to find a decent tenant who pays the rent on time and looks after the property?
Seriously though Ms. Boycott ... please can you stop promoting this "them and us" mentality? It is unhealthy for the PRS. There are bad tenants and bad landlords and there are good tenants and good landlords.
Without tenants, landlords cannot grow a BTL income .... without BTL landlords, tenants do not have as much choice about where they live. Therefore we need each other and should work together for the greater good.
I expound more on these thoughts in a recent post I made on Property Tribes forum http://www.propertytribes.com/what-private-rented-sector-can-learn-lawrence-t-7181.html
And finally, have you considered that many people do not aspire to home ownership and prefer the flexibility of renting?
@Laurence
I can tell you one thing that is not going up and certainly not by any inflation measure, and that is the wages of employees expected to pay these rent increases
Just WHO would hold the licence for licencing?
A quango?
Can someone from Shelter answer the 2 following simple questions?
1. if they don't want a private rented sector to make money who will invest in it?
2. if they manage to close all letting agents where will tenants go to ensure that the landlord is acting within the law?
At the moment CAB and local councils cannot police this because of the number of unregistered landlords and agents. What Shelterr should be doing is engaging with legitimate agents and promoting the licencing of agents and not creating about the fees. It is about time Shelter joined the real world. Who is holding Shelter and the Scottish press to account for the rapid rent rises in Scotland?
Shelter's attempts to "sort out" the private sector has resulted in more red tape for landlords and letting agents.
More red tape means a reduction in a supply of properties available for rent.
The housing crisis means that the demand for rental properties is increasing.
Increased demand + a reduction in supply = Rent increases.
I think that there is a lag in the effect of recent legislation and the current situation is going to esculate and rents are going to go through the roof.
According to Shelters Annual report they have one employee who earns over £100k and my guess is that it is Campbell Robb who is not doing a good job if he is driving up rents.
They also have retained reserves of £20 million which would be better spent on actually providing "Shelter" to homeless families rather than for Campbell to take Boris and Jack Dromy out for lunch.
Be quiet Shelter, we aren't interested.
It's not a trap, it is called inflation. Everything is going up and rent is no exception.
If you reduce these rent increases by an inflation amount of about 7% you will not see a real increase at all.
Don't tell me that official inflation figures are less than this because I do not believe you. My own very simple, typical finances show 7-10% currently.
the only thing that is a trap is listening to impractical twits like shelter.
It's the fees of "...a few hundred pounds..." that give Shelter the ammunition for their scattergun approach.
This is no different to the questions asked in Unfair Deposits research by CAB in 1998 - and you all know what that landed the indutry with in 2007.
“Have you had a bad landlord? Been forced to pay huge fees to a letting agent?”
One of the main reasons you pay a fee of a few hundred pounds to a proffesional letting agent is to eliminate the risk of being landed with an unscrupulous landlord by renting privately.
Shelter is a very uneducated charity.
"Although Boycott is only asking for negative stories, there seems no reason why something a little more positive should not be posted up here:"
ww.action.shelter.org.uk
lol, do you REALLY think they would allow a positive post to contaminate their 'evidence', hahahaha dream on