High rents stop London workers living near their jobs

High rents stop London workers living near their jobs

High rents are increasingly preventing London workers from living anywhere near their jobs, according to new analysis from flatshare platform SpareRoom.

The figures show that a Londoner earning the National Living Wage of £12.21 an hour would need to work 63 hours a week—almost the equivalent of two full-time jobs—to keep their housing costs within the recommended threshold of spending no more than 30% of income on rent.

Even if the Government raises the National Living Wage to £12.70 in the upcoming Budget, as expected, workers would still need to put in 60 hours a week to afford typical rents.

Shared accommodation is usually the most affordable option, yet even those earning the voluntary London Living Wage of £14.80 an hour would still need to work 52 hours weekly to stay within the 30% affordability guideline.

In reality, many essential workers are spending between 40% and 50% of their gross pay on rent. A nursery assistant on an average salary of £24,420, for instance, would spend 49% of their income on housing.

Rents in the capital have surged 37% in the past five years, reaching an average of £995 per month for a room in Q3 2025. After first breaking the £900 barrier in late 2022, rents peaked at £1,015 in late 2023 and are once again nearing the £1,000 mark.

SpareRoom found that essential workers across a range of roles are paying far more than the recommended 30% of income on rent:

Average annual salary vs. share of income spent on rent (£995/month)

• Nursery assistant (£24,420): 49%

• Cleaner (£25,195): 47%

• Care worker (£26,175): 46%

• Labourer (£26,481): 45%

• Ambulance driver (£29,946): 40%

SpareRoom director Matt Hutchinson says the Chancellor must use the Budget to confront the housing crisis head-on. While the Renters’ Rights Act offers valuable protections, he argues it does nothing to address the underlying issue of unaffordable rents.

Hutchinson warns that essential workers—the backbone of the capital—are being pushed out to commuter towns such as Esher, Twickenham and Aldershot in search of cheaper housing. But for many lower-paid shift workers, long and costly commutes simply aren’t practical.

He adds that this challenge isn’t limited to London: “Cities across the country rely on essential workers, and so does the wider economy. This isn’t a niche problem—it’s becoming a national epidemic.”