Forget saving for a mortgage, one in ten renters use food banks

A survey of tenants has found that one in ten rely on support from food banks, while only nine per cent would describe themselves as financially comfortable. 

Nearly half say they struggle to make ends meet, with next to no disposable income once their outgoings were accounted for, in the study conducted by Zero Deposit.

“While much has been made about the obstacle of accumulating a mortgage deposit and the increased cost of monthly mortgage repayments following a spike in interest rates, the nation’s renters are facing a far more desperate situation in the current climate,” chief executive of Zero Deposit, Sam Reynolds, said.

End-of-year stats for 2023 from the Trussell Trust showed a nearly 200 per cent increase in food parcels distributed in The Trussell Trust network in London since 2017, to 145,575 parcels.  

There are just under 1,400 Trussell Trust food banks in the UK, plus over 1,172 independent food banks, according to the House of Commons Library. 

Surplus food charity The Felix Project found 89 per cent of the community organisations they support in London expected demand to rise in 2024, of which 58 per cent expected a significant rise.

Tenants in Zero Deposit’s survey cited the continued high cost of living, plus overdraft and borrowing fees, as the key contributors to financial difficulty. 

Over a third said that higher interest rates had contributed to an increase in their monthly costs, while more than half said that their rent had risen in the last year. 

Rent in the capital rose by over 30 per cent between 2021 and 2023, according to Savills.  

While renters have been struggling, home-owners have too, with the proportion of UK mortgages in arrears rising to its highest level since 2016 at the end of last year, according to data from the Bank of England.

Borrowers were squeezed by high interest rates and household costs, with more turning away from ownership.

According to the latest available data from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, more than four in 10 social renters (43 per cent) and around a third of private renters (35 per cent) were in poverty in 2022 after accounting for housing costs. 

Around a third of social renters and half of private renters were only in poverty after their housing costs were factored in, suggesting that they were pushed into poverty by the amount they have to spend on housing.

“Rent as a proportion of total salary are as high as 53 per cent in the capital and 43 per cent across the UK as a whole. This is clearly unsustainable. 

“The Government risks sleepwalking through these issues with no meaningful progress on home building and incentives for landlords to engage in the sector with optimism,” Reynolds said.

“Like homebuyers, they too have a sizable upfront cost to overcome in the form of a rental deposit when looking to secure a roof over their head within the rental sector. For those who can overcome this initial obstacle, the continued cost of living and the escalating cost of rent itself is putting serious pressure on their financial stability,” he added.

One in 50 people in the capital is currently living in temporary accommodation, according to London Councils. 

“My wish for 2024 is that the government gets serious about tackling the scourge of temporary accommodation in London and funds the new generation of social rented housing needed to provide homes which solve the housing crisis,” Dinah Roake, chair of the London Housing Panel, commented. 

“This situation has got more acute with the cost of living crisis and the surge in private rents in London,” she added.