Families in the UK are among the worst off in Europe when it comes to housing costs. One in six people in the UK (16.5%) are overburdened by housing costs, according to findings published by the European Union.
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This means they are spending more than 40% of their income on costs such as rent, mortgage payments and other living costs associated with their home.
The UK has three times as many people weighed down by housing costs than nearest neighbours France, where only 5.2% report they are overburdened.
Housing in the UK is so unaffordable that out of 29 EU countries analysed, only Denmark and Greece reported being worse off, placing the UK third from bottom for affordable housing costs.
Campbell Robb, Shelter’s Chief Executive said:
‘These figures are the evidence that the UK housing market is deeply dysfunctional’.
‘With so many families spending huge amounts of their income on their rent or mortgage, people will be making daily trade-offs between food bills, filling the car tank with petrol, and paying their housing costs.
‘And this is not set to get better any time soon. While the situation is bleak at the moment, a succession of governments failing to provide much needed affordable homes means that the future facing our children and our children’s children is only set to get worse.
‘Housing is the largest monthly cost for most people, yet the affordability of housing is not getting the same attention as the monthly costs of other essentials such as food or fuel. We believe all political parties must recognise solving our housing crisis is as fundamental as health and education.’
Further Information
Income & Living Conditions in Europe PDF is available here.
Statistics on income, social inclusion and living conditions cover objective and subjective aspects of these themes in both monetary and non-monetary terms for both households and individuals. They are used to monitor the Europe 2020 strategy in particular through its poverty reduction headline target.
The main source for the compilation of statistics on income, social inclusion and living conditions is the EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) instrument. It collects comparable multidimensional micro-data on:
- income
- poverty
- social exclusion
- housing
- labour (see also Labour market)
- education (see also Education and training)
- health (see also Health)
Additional data on living conditions can be found in other domains, notably population statistics, health statistics, education and training statistics and labour market statistics.
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