The theory of how you should allocate your earnings is the golden rule of 50/30/20 which is based on the principle that you should allocate your take home pay to 50% for needs, 30% for wants and 20% for savings and additional debt payments. Of that 50%, 30 of it is towards rent and the rest to utilities and taxes. This of course is someone’s recommended ideal for you but it should only be seen as a guideline – we do not all fit into the same situation. Those that live in a cheaper area opposed to those that live in he bigger cities where rents are higher and people are spending 50% of their income on rent.

A recent survey of almost 50,000 tenants showed that 1 in 10 spend at least 60% of their monthly take home salary on rent. 35.7% is the average spend on rent in the UK; 19.3% are spending at least half of their salary and 4.4%, or 1 in 20, people spend 80% of their income.

Chris Hutchinson, chief executive at Canopy, the company that commissioned the survey stated “Considering these numbers don’t include essentials like groceries, commuting costs and utilities bills, the figures raise serious questions on how feasible saving for a mortgage is for the majority of tenants in this country.”

The number of rental properties in the UK is now at an all-time low. For the last 40 years there has been no obligations on local councils to replace the social housing that they have been selling off, so the shortage started there. Landlords feel they are being driven away with further regulations and taxes and we are now 5 years into the threat of Section 21 evictions being banned and still no sign of it will be replaced with.