London rents up by 10% – We need a new system
London rents rose by over 10% in the last 12 months according to the Office of National Statistics.
Whilst this is less than the previous month’s figure of 11%, it remains a significant indication of the pressure London housing is under.
Average rent is now just under £25,000 a year, and the average household income is just over £32,000 a year. There is an obvious difficulty in those numbers – an average family paying the average rent will have, on average, £7,000 a year left over for everything else…
The rental system in London is broken, and that’s where Capital Letters comes in. For the last 6 years we have been building the foundations of a new system that prioritises ethical practice, and societal good – helping Londoners who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness to build lives in secure, stable, affordable and good quality homes.
In the next 2 years, working with our partner Home Safe Housing, we will be providing up to 2,500 homes that our member London boroughs can use to move Londoners out of insecure and poor quality temporary accommodation or provide a home for those threatened with homeless.
And in this new system, everyone wins…
Boroughs save taxpayers money and the wider public purse on the costs of expensive Temporary Accommodation (c£15,000 per annum per family), our investors receive both a financial return and social return on their investment, local areas benefit from refurbished and good quality homes, residents get an affordable, long term, secure, good quality home in which to build a brilliant life, and London benefits – more children get better education, more people are in better health, more people are settled and able to find work and support, costs for the NHS reduce and the cycle goes on.
We can only do this by being proudly not-for-profit, ethical, dynamic and socially responsible – because we know that a home changes everything.