Rents across Cornwall are on the rise, but they’re not growing as fast as the rest of the country. Private renters in England paid an average of £1,369 a month in the 12 months to December, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.
That’s up by 9.2 per cent compared to a year earlier and means people had to find an extra £115 a month on average.
The average home in Cornwall cost £943 a month to rent privately in the year to December. That’s 8.2 per cent more expensive - or £72 extra a month - than in the year to December 2023.
A decade earlier, the average rent in our county was £679 a month. Had rents increased in line with inflation then they would cost £920 today.
While the housing crisis shows no signs of ending anytime soon, the main problem in Cornwall is the lack of properties available to rent. Low wages don't help, with the average rent in Cornwall working out at just over a third (34 per cent) of the typical full-time salary of someone living here.
The average private rent in the London borough of Brent was £2,111 a month in the year to December.
That’s 26.8% higher than a year earlier, which is the largest percentage increase of any local authority in the UK.
It means renters in the London borough have had to find an extra £447 a month on average. That's also the largest cash increase of local authority in the country.
Newport in Wales saw the next largest increase.
The typical private rent in the city was £877 a month. That’s 18.6% (£137) more than a year ago.
In Slough - the Berkshire town famed for being the setting of comedy show The Office - rents increased by 16.8% on average to £1,493 a month. That’s an extra £215 that renters need to find each month.
Nuneaton and Bedworth in the West Midlands saw rents go up by 16.4% to £829 a month (an increase of £117).
Folkestone and Hythe completes the top five with rents increasing by an average of 14.6% a month (an extra £134).
Use our interactive map below to see average rents and rises across England and Wales
Tom Darling, director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said: “The day after the Renters’ Rights Bill passes its report stage in the House of Commons, new data reveals the scale of the ongoing affordability crisis for renters – average rents in England increased by over 9% over the past year.
“The bill that progressed last night will bring in some much-needed changes, but as it stands it fails to address the biggest problem for most renters – the outrageous cost of renting a home. With rents wildly outstripping inflation, are private renters meant to stand by and say nothing as we get poorer relative to everyone else?”
“If the Government won’t cap rents through the Renters’ Rights Bill they should establish a National Rental Affordability Commission, to look at all options to get a grip on the situation and actually bring rents down relative to wages.”
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Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “Today’s figures show that yet another wave of sky-high rent rises has come crashing down on renters. Every day we hear from tenants who have been forced out of their homes when their landlord hiked up their rent – more than 300,000 renters had to move in the past year because of a rent increase they couldn’t afford.
“The Renters’ Rights Bill could be the sea change England’s 11 million renters have been waiting for. For years, tenants have weathered a storm of insecurity, unfair evictions, and extortionate up-front costs. The government is right to finally turn the tide, but the Bill must go further to ensure these unfair rent hikes cannot continue once it becomes law.
“Tenants need a watertight commitment that they won’t be forced out of their homes unfairly. Rent increases within tenancies must be brought in line with either inflation or wage growth if the government truly intends to deliver the security renters have long been promised.”
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