A third of working tenants in England do not have enough savings to pay rent if they lose their job, putting them at risk of losing their home, according to research by the housing charity Shelter.
Record rents and the rising cost of other household bills are putting tenants’ finances under pressure and mean many are unable to set money aside for emergencies.
Shelter’s survey of more than 2,000 tenants found that 55% had seen their rent go up this year and 37% were struggling to pay or had already fallen behind as a result of an increase.
It said tenants’ savings were “all but drying up”, and as a result, 51% of those who were working had a month or less worth of rent put by, including 34% who said they would not be able to afford to pay any rent at all from their reserves.
This means that across England 2.2 million adults could immediately fall behind on their rent if they lose their job, and 3.2 million are one paycheck away from losing their home, Shelter said.
The charity, which is lobbying for more social housing to be built, said the number of renters who could cover only a month’s rent from savings had increased by almost a third in the past two years.
Polly Neate, Shelter’s chief executive, said private renters were “facing a crisis like never before”.
She said: “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. With food and household bills continuing to surge, the situation is precarious for thousands of renters who are one paycheck away from losing their home, and the spectre of homelessness.”
Last week official data from the Office for National Statistics showed increases in unemployment rates and private rents.
The ONS said the UK’s jobless rate had risen to 4.6%, and a day later it reported that private rents paid by tenants across the UK had risen by 5.3% in the year to July – the largest annual increase since its series began in 2016.
Its data, which is based on 450,000 new and existing tenancies, typically shows a lower growth rate than snapshots based on homes being advertised.
The most recent data from the property website Rightmove showed that listed rents in some cities were up by more than 20%. It put the average advertised private rent outside London at a new record of £1,231 a calendar month, while in London it was almost double that at £2,567.
As well as these costs, tenants, like homeowners, have also had to contend with rising energy bills and high levels of inflation in the cost of many basic groceries.
A government spokesperson said: “We have a strong track record of delivering affordable homes to rent and buy across the country. Since 2010, we have delivered over 659,500 new affordable homes through our £11.5bn affordable homes programme, including 166,300 homes for social rent. Our landmark renters (reform) bill will also deliver a better deal for renters, giving tenants greater security in their homes and preventing large rent increases being used as a backdoor method of eviction.”
