43 Weekly Newsletter

UK rent disparity

Official date shows the extent of the rent crisis in the UK and how unaffordable it is. This is demonstrated by how data shows that in the last 18 months, housing costs in London accounted for 35% of the income of those tenants living there. This huge part of tenants’ income is equal to around £1,450 per month and is the only region where the percentage of income spent on housing costs is over 30%. In some areas of London, that percentage was as high as almost 50% of their income spent on housing costs.

Comparatively, people in England as a whole spend 26% of their income on rent, which is a large disparity compared to London, despite remaining very high on average. Other figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this week showed that on average UK rents increased at an annual rate of 5.7% with tenants in London seeing a rise of 6.2%. These figures are the highest since records began almost 20 years ago. A separate ONS survey published this week discovered that respondents finding it difficult to pay for rent rose from 30% to 43% in the last year.

Newspapers

The UK’s front page news cycle over the last seven days has covered a wide range of topics. UK inflation holds steady at 6.7% in September, UK chancellor plans to extend help for first-time homebuyers and former UK prime minister backs cross-party approach to regional mayors. Furthermore, the conflict in Israel and Palestine remains a huge topic in the newspapers this week. Some of the newspaper front pages from this week were:

• Financial Times – Hunt looks to extend help for first-time homebuyers
• Financial Times – UK government borrowing was lower than forecast in September
• The Times – ‘We’re watching you from 500 miles away’: CCTV closes in on shoplifters
• The Guardian – Ministers expected to end deals with dozens of hotels housing asylum seekers
• The Guardian – Ministers ‘betray’ renters in England with delay to no-fault evictions ban
• Sunday Telegraph – Tax cuts on way if Sunak hits inflation target, suggests minister

Ikea and BT push against fossil fuels

Ikea, BT, AstraZeneca and Volvo cars are among 130 businesses who have urged world leaders to set a plan to move away from fossil fuels as the UN summit in Dubai next month looms. These companies worth over £11 trillion wrote a letter calling for governments to “seek outcomes that will lay the groundwork to transform the global energy system towards a full phaseout of fossil fuels and halve the emissions this decade”. This support follows the footsteps of the Paris Agreement in which most countries agreed to limit global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius. The reason for this concern is the feeling that there is a lack of international policies and plans in order to reach such ambitious goals set in the Paris Agreement.