RENTING alone was costing middle-income tenants in Barrow one sixth of of their pre-tax wages before the cost of living escalated, new figures suggest.

The Government recently unveiled its renters' reform bill, which aims to ban no-fault evictions, provide greater legal power for renters to challenge landlords on unfit homes and protect them against unjust price rises.

Shelter said the bill is "a gamechanger for England’s 11 million private renters" but also expressed concern for tenants living on a knife-edge as the cost of living soars.

In Barrow, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom property stood at £490 in the 12 months to March, Office for National Statistics figures highlight.

Separate ONS figures show the median wage of full-time employees in the area in 2021 was £34,664 per year.

It means the average middle-income worker living alone in Barrow was spending around 17 per cent of their income on rent last year.

The median is a measure used to exclude extreme values which could skew the average.

Median rent across all property types in Barrow rose from £525 per month in the 12 months to March 2021 to £550 last year.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said millions of tenants are "living on a knife-edge with no wriggle room to help then navigate rising costs" as private rents rocket and swallow an increasingly large portion of people's income.

Ms Neate also urged the Government to end the freeze on housing benefits immediately, providing a safety net for almost half of renters who have no savings and preventing rising homelessness.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the most vulnerable will receive at least £1,200 of direct payments to limit the rising cost of living, and highlighted the council tax rebate and £400 energy repayment as measures introduced to aid people during this testing period.

Different ONS figures show median rents rose by 2.8 per cent in the 12 months to May, the highest annual increase since records began in 2016.

In the North West, rents have increased by 3.6 per cent – up from 2 per cent the year before.

Action group Generation Rent said that some middle-income earners being unable to afford their own one-bed flat is a "shameful mark of failure by successive governments to take housing seriously".