Andrew Dismore

Shock figures from the National Housing Federation show the average private rent in Barnet amounts to £1588 per month, or £19,056 a year.

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore says this shows how broken the housing market is in London and Barnet, and urgent action is needed to make rents more affordable.

According to the Office for National Statistics’ survey of hours and earnings, the average annual salary in Barnet was £33,857, meaning that over 56% of pre-tax income was spent on housing costs.

Mr Dismore said:

‘Over half the income of those who rent privately is now going on putting a roof over their heads. No wonder there is a cost of living crisis. The Conservative Government have done nothing to make renting more affordable. I am pleased to see that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is being much tougher- for example he has just thrown back the application for Pentavia retail park, where developers wanted to charge an unaffordable level of rent even for their “affordable” provision.

‘We need to see an increased supply of housing to tackle this severe unaffordability. This is getting harder and harder with many development sites approved for unaffordable luxury flats under the Boris Johnson era, landbanking by developers, and the impact of Brexit driving away skilled workers in the construction trade.’

Cllr Ross Houston, Labour spokesperson for Housing on Barnet Council said:

‘Barnet Labour will help the growing number of residents in the private rented sector by cracking down on rogue landlords to improve standards, and by ensuring a proportion of all new homes built are at a discounted ‘Living Rent’ that is based on local incomes and affordable to those on middle incomes.’