bbc-data-unit / rent-day

Rent costs full-time workers every penny earned until May

Rent costs full-time workers every penny earned until May

In May 2018 David Rhodes reported on the time that it takes people in different parts of the country to earn enough to pay their year's rent. The first week of May marks the point when the average UK worker has paid off their rent - but the story also highlighted regional variation in rent costs, and how renting has become more expensive:

• A middle income earner in England would work 86 days to rent an average two-bedroom home, five more than in 2011.
• In Scotland and Wales the number of working days needed to cover their rent fell to 79 and 71 days respectively.

Additional visualisation was created by Dan Wainwright and Clara Guibourg

Get the data

• Eurostat
• Valuation Office Agency
• Scottish Government: Private Sector Rent Statistics, Scotland, 2010 to 2017 - direct link
• StatsWales: Private sector rents by local authority, 1 January to 31 December 2017 - direct link
• Office for National Statistics: median wage data for each local authority area in Great Britain
• Excel workbook with analysis

Interviews and quotes

• David Smith, policy director for The Residential Landlords Association
• Rebeca Corona, 30, and partner Fernando Garcia, 31, rent in Cambridge
• Rich Franklin, 45, who moved from Bristol to Halifax in order to save money while renting
• Adam Hyslop, letting agent OpenRent

Visualisation

• Interactive map: Working to pay the rent: Change in the number of days full-time workers had to work to fund a two-bed property from 2011 to 2017
• Bar chart: The cost of renting in major cities - average rent for a two-bedroom flat
• Bar chart: Change in the number of days to pay the rent - rise or fall since 2011 for a middle priced two-bed property
• Dumbbell chart: Working to pay the rent - Areas where full-time workers saw the biggest increase in the time it takes to fund a two-bed property

Social

• BBC News has set up a new UK Facebook group all about affordable living: the Affordable Living group

Methodology

The BBC England Data Unit analysed data for the median rent of two-bed properties in England, Wales and Scotland, gathered by the Valuation Office Agency in England and the governments in Scotland and Wales. There are no comparable figures for Northern Ireland. The total sample size was more than 200,000 private rental agreements.

Median wage data for each local authority area in Great Britain is drawn from the Office for National Statistics.

The number of days it would take a tenant to pay the annual rent on a private two-bed property is calculated by dividing the median annual rent for a property by the median daily net pay for a full-time worker in each local authority area.

Net pay is calculated by taking the gross annual pay for the median worker in each local authority area, accounting for the personal allowance, income tax and national insurance, then dividing the figure by the total number of days the median worker could spend at work. The calculation excludes weekends, eight bank holidays in England and Wales and nine bank holidays in Scotland.