Average rent in Worksop and Retford rose during coronavirus pandemic

Housing charity Shelter said thousands of people are "battling to stay in their homes and face the threat of homelessness" as they attempt to keep up with rents rocketing to record levels.

Office for National Statistics figures show the median rent per property paid by tenants across 740 homes – from shared rooms to one-bedroom apartments to four-bedroom homes – in Bassetlaw district in the year to March was £575, up by 4.5 per cent from £550 the year before. In the year to March 2020, before the pandemic, tenants paid an average of £525.

Across Nottinghamshire, median rent paid by tenants across 7,670 homes in the year to March was £650, up 4 per cent from £625 the year before. In the year to March 2020, tenants paid an average of £550.

Further ONS figures show rents in England increased 4.9 per cent in the year to May, up from 4.7 per cent in the year to April and the highest rise since records began in January 2006.

Shelter said private renters are “facing a crisis like never before” and blamed the Government for failing to build enough affordable social housing.

Polly Neate, Shelter chief executive, said: “Given private renters already pay the highest housing costs of anyone and have for a long time, they’re feeling the pain of the cost-of-living crisis more than most.”

She said, while the Government’s immediate focus should be on ending the four-year freeze on housing benefit and “preventing a tsunami of homelessness”, building social homes is the only answer to ending the housing emergency for good.

She said: “We need more genuinely affordable social homes with stable rents tied to local incomes and not an unstable private market.”

A UK Government spokesman said the Renters Reform Bill will “deliver a fairer deal for renters in England”. He said the Bill “will empower tenants to challenge unjustified rent increases and protect them as we keep our commitment to ban ‘no-fault’ evictions” and added housebuilding is a priority for the Government, committing to building 300,000 homes every year to “create a more sustainable and affordable housing market”.