Being priced out of having a roof over your head
Renting or owning a home is becoming nigh on impossible for some Swindonians
You’re reading the paid-for edition of The Ink - curated community news straight to your inbox in association with Swindon Link. Having upgraded to paid, you are supporting the most exciting and ambitious media venture in the South West enabling us to keep you informed and up to date with everything Swindon. By subscribing you have given us the ability to send news analysis, updates and features direct to your inbox. We always welcome feedback so please let us know how we are doing in the comments. And please tell your friends and families about us as every new subscriber makes us stronger.
If you are a free subscriber you will only be able to read the first part of this briefing which means you’ll miss out on the entire article.
Upgrade now and get your first month free. The ultimate try before you buy.
It only costs £5.99 a month - less than a 500ml bottle of Diet Coke a week.
Housing is becoming unaffordable in Swindon and something needs to be done about it
New figures show that just having a roof over your head in Swindon now takes up on average 29% of a person’s income, whether you’re a renter or a homeowner. This is a massive increase from around the 20% mark back in 2008. With salaries not increasing at the same rate, is it any wonder that we’re facing a huge housing crisis?
By Jamie Hill
‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’ according to the old saying.
But if things keep going the way they are going that saying will definitely need to be updated a tad.
Maybe it should now say ‘An Englishman’s home is his mum and dad’s back bedroom’.
Or even ‘An Englishman’s home is a cardboard box in an underpass just off the Great Western Way’.
As a country we’re pricing ourselves out of housing.
Owning a home is now an impossible dream. A fabled unicorn. Nearly as rare as being able to get a GP appointment.
But renting, in recent years, has also become an impossible dream. It’s as if landlords saw that buying a house was getting so hard that they’re surprised Tom Cruise hasn’t added it as one of the arduous tasks for his ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise and thought ‘let’s make renting just as unaffordable too as we’re nice like that’.
New figures have revealed how private renters and homeowners in Swindon were affected by inflation and increased interest rates last year.
And it doesn’t make easy reading.
In fact it’s so horrific that you’d be less traumatised watching the entire Saw franchise of films.
Analysis by the Office for National Statistics show an estimated 13% of private renters in Swindon have been affected by rising rental costs.
That does mean that 87% of landlords in Swindon have been nice enough not to pass on their increased costs to their poor, beleaguered tenants.
Of those affected, the average monthly rent increased from £846 before 2023, to £912 last year.
That’s a whopping 7.5% increase. Just at a time when you have to take out a small loan just to fill up the car and do the weekly shop.
The figures show the increased cost accounted for 29% of these renters' household disposable income.
Housing costs have also increased since 2022 amid rising inflation and higher interest rates.