THE PRIVATE RENTAL SECTOR HAS GROWN BY 2 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS IN THE LAST 10 YEARS…

The ONS has just published its latest English Housing Survey (2016–17), revealing the continued growth of the private rented sector. Over a fifth of households (20.3%) now rent privately, up from 19.9% a year earlier and a higher proportion than ever before.

Other places have also seen substantial increases though. The proportion of households renting privately in Yorkshire and the Humber is now the second largest across all the English regions, accounting for 21.1% of households, up 11.2 percentage points in the last ten years.

As is well documented, the growth in London’s rental sector has been most pronounced. It now accounts for 30% of households, up 11.6 percentage points from ten years ago. While there are over 2 million more households renting privately than there were ten years ago, almost half a million of these are in London.

While one in ten households across the region lived in rented accommodation ten years ago, now this tenure accounts for one in five.