In London, average house prices are now 16 times women’s average salary. That makes it almost impossible for most single women to get a mortgage , but there’s an urgent issue that has been conspicuous by its absence from every single campaign: the gender housing gap.
are on the brink. It will also have a severe scarring effect on the mental and physical health of the kids who are caught up in this mess. According to WBG, the average cost of renting a one-bedroom home in England now swallows up 36 per cent of women’s earnings, but just 26 per cent of men’s. In London, it’s 53 per cent of women’s earnings compared to 41 per cent of men’s.
As ever, women are worst hit by this. According to the Department for Work and Pensions own research, the majority of housing support claimants who can’t get enough help to pay their rent are single women. Sixty eight per cent of these single women have one or more dependent children.Laura is trapped between the high rents in her area where the average two-bedroom costs £2,304 and needing to stay put so she can be near her support network and her child’s school.