Over 2million families are busting their budgets to pay rent, report warns
BRITAIN’S spiralling housing crisis has left more than two million families having to spend way beyond their means just to meet the rent, a shock report reveals today.
Tenants in England are forking out £11billion a year more than they can afford, charity Shelter claims.
That means each overspending household is paying an average of £425 a month beyond its means.
Four in ten families are spending more than 30 per cent of income on rent — considered to be the benchmark for affordability, the Shelter survey shows.
And a quarter borrow from family and friends or use credit cards to cover the shortfall.
The charity says the crisis is fuelled by a council homes shortage and is urging the next government to build 90,000 a year over the next five years.
Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said: “Hugely unaffordable rents dominate life for millions.
“Our services see the real cost of private renting, which is leaving parents struggling to put food on the table or turn the heating on, while also keeping a roof over their children’s heads.
“It’s clear that private renting isn’t working for everyone.”
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Both the Tories and Labour have unveiled ambitious plans to tackle the crisis by boosting the number of houses being constructed.
Boris Johnson has said he will build at least a million more over the next five years – of which "hundreds of thousands" would be social homes.
Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to put up more than a million council houses in a decade, upping the construction rate to 150,000 a year by the end of 2024.
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