The cost of rent in London is pricing younger nurses and teachers out of the capital, according to a report on the UK housing market.
This could lead to a lack of key public sector workers in the city as it puts them off living there, consultancy firm PwC’s analysis suggests.
In the capital the report states that 22 to 29-year-olds on average now spend more than half, 53 per cent, of their income on private rent in London.
That is almost double what it deemed an acceptable benchmark of around 30 per cent.
Jamie Durham, an economist at PwC, said: “Rents are unaffordable for many key workers in London and the South, limiting social mobility.”
The report added: “The high cost of rental housing may therefore prevent people who work in key professions from living in or moving to London and the South East, leading to shortages of nurses, teachers and other key workers in these regions, as well as limiting economic and social mobility across the country.”
As well as affecting key worker professions, the study states the high rent to income ratio means that “many jobs” do not offer substantial enough wages to make London living affordable.
It also suggested that when it came to key workers it was not just London and the south east with an issue, the east and south west were also particularly unaffordable.
To counter this, PwC suggests the Government could increase the supply of properties to “put downward pressure on property price inflation”.
It also suggested considering rent controls, to prevent landlords from increasing the rent for periods of time.
