Study says Exeter rent is unaffordable for low income families

Exeter has been named amongst one of the UK’s rent hotspots where private rents may be off-limits to many households.

A report by the Resolution Foundation has found that Exeter is among places where the cost of rent exceeds the income of many households even on a modest property.

Across the UK, 125 of the 376 local authorities studied were shown to have a rent which was unaffordable on a £22,000 net income. For family with an income of £19,000, nearly half of the studied areas were unaffordable.

The report claims that the root of the problem is a UK-wide housing shortage claiming that local authorities should take a larger role in providing affordable housing for example by setting aside land for a rental property development.

Cllr Paul Bull from Exeter City Council said on twitter that the Government needed to address the issues highlighted in the report and ‘to address the lack of social housing forcing those on HB (housing benefit) to live less regulated, higher priced private rental sector”

Vidhya Alakeson, deputy chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said: “There is an urgent need to provide more affordable housing for people on low and middle incomes.

“They are increasingly unlikely to be able to afford the deposit to buy their own home so turn to the private rented sector – but here too they are now struggling to find decent, affordable housing.

“Incomes for this group are not likely to grow for at least the next five years and this will only make the housing problem more acute.”