Minimum wage earners would have to work 23 hours a day to afford a home in north London
The amount per-hour needed to afford to live in north west London postcodes - Credit: Archant
To afford to rent a one bedroom home in some parts of north London you would have to be working more than 23 hours a day, according to figures collated by totallymoney.com
The amount per-hour needed to afford to live in north London postcodes - Credit: Archant
The stats reveal that in the NW1 postcode (Camden) and NW8 (St Johns Wood), you would have to be earning £22.94 and £24.01 per hour respectively in a 37.5 hour working week to afford to live in the areas.
On the cheaper end of the scale is the NW7 postcode (Mill Hill) in zone 4, where you would have to earn at least £11.69 an hour.
This news comes two weeks after chancellor George Osborne announced in the budget that he would be raising the current minimum wage to £9 per hour from its current £6.50 by 2020 to offer a compulsory “national living wage”.
The first raise is taking place this October, where those on minimum wages will see a rise of 3 per cent if they are aged 18 and over and two per cent if they are aged 16 to 17.
This will put the minimum wage at £6.70 for those aged 21 and over, £5.30 for 18 to 20 year-olds and £3.87 for 16 and 17 year olds.
The living wage itself will be introduced from April 2016 at a rate of £7.20 an hour for people over the age of 25.
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However, as the totallymoney.com figures show, even with the projected rise, most people on minimum wage will still be vastly priced out of north London.
At present, the only place in the whole of the capital where you could afford a one bedroom rental on minimum wage is Abbey Woods (SE2), in Zone 4.
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Even the current London Living Wage, at £9.15 per hour, would only get you a bed in one more postcode, N18 (Enfield) in Zone 6.
Daniel Wilson Craw, from affordable rental campaign group Generation Rent said that the figures show that London is becoming “off-limits” to anyone on a low income.
“After the budget young people and larger families will no longer have housing benefit to fall back on,” he said.
“The Chancellor’s cuts to landlord subsidies should create incentives to improve rental properties – at the moment landlords don’t have to prove they make repairs in order to get a 10 per cent tax break. But ultimately there is a shortage of housing in north London: instead of taking away benefits, the government should be investing in building genuinely affordable homes.”
