The places in England and Wales hit hardest by soaring rent crisis, revealed

It’s never been more expensive to rent a home in England and Wales, and now statisticians have revealed the areas hit hardest by surging payments in 2023.

New analysis from the Office for National Statistics looked at the estimated number of households affected by rising costs and how that compared to the proportion of their disposable income taken up by rent.

For each of the 328 areas in England and Wales, statisticians allocated the area a score between one and seven to show how exposed private renters had been to rising rents in 2023.

It showed a distinct north-south divide in the renting crisis with not every area facing the same challenges. Unsurprisingly, the crisis is particularly acute in London.

A total of 47 areas were given a seven – meaning they tenants were most exposed – including every London borough aside from Bexley (which earned a six) and the City of London where figures weren’t available.

Outside of London, cities like Bristol, Brighton and Hove, Cambridge, Oxford and Manchester all were identified as rent-rise hotspots by statisticians.

On the other end of the spectrum, just 21 areas earned a score of one in the analysis, largely encompassing more rural areas in the north of England and the Midlands as well as Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot and Powys in Wales.

Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland in Cumbria were least affected by rising rents as were Redcar and Cleveland and Northumberland and Rotherham and Wakefield in parts of Yorkshire. Parts of Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire also saw renters relatively unscathed.

The ONS found average private rents across the UK rose by 9.2% in the year up to March 2024 as the price of new tenancies surged to record highs.

The Resolution Foundation has warned rents will continue to outstrip projected pay rises over the next three years too.

The biggest rent increases in 2023 were found in London with a third of renters in Westminster seeing their rents ahead of 30% in Kensington and Chelsea and just shy of that mark in Newham.

Outside of London, renters in Brighton and Hove were most likely to see a rent increase with a fifth of tenants in the Sussex seaside resort seeing their rent rise in 2023.

That revelation is likely to be why Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas spoke up as the Renters Reform Bill – the government’s rent reforms which are intended to give tenants more security – passed through the House of Commons.

Lucas criticised the bill’s measures to tackle rent increases and called for the bill to prevent tribunals allowing increases above the level proposed by the landlord.

Lucas described the situation as “frankly outrageous” and said it showed the “government is determined to tip the balance of power even further in favour of landlords”. 

On the other end of the spectrum, the lowest average rent increases were recorded in North and North-East Lincolnshire, as well as Barnsley in South Yorkshire where tenants paid an extra £48 a month.

Meanwhile, the lowest percentage of renters experiencing a rent increase were found in the Forest of Dean, Torridge and West Devon at 1.8%.

The rent crisis in England is one of the reasons behind the record-high homelessness statistics revealed earlier this week.

In response to the figures, Rick Henderson, chief executive at Homeless Link, the national membership body for frontline homelessness services, said: “Across the country, a lack of social housing and an insecure private rental system combine together to pressure people into homelessness. 

“We were deeply disappointed to see the government water down the Renters Reform Bill in favour of landlord interests, meanwhile it continues to do very little to address the other long-term causes of homelessness. It need to change its approach, favouring the wellbeing of those experiencing homelessness, to see any progress on these statistics in the future.”

To see how rents in your area fared, head to the ONS’s investigation.

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