Rental freedom day in England, the day when tenants will finally have earned enough this year so far to cover the annual cost of their rent, falls on May 7 this year.

However, there are wide regional differences and tenants in London have to wait until July 9, further evidence that renters in the capital typically spend more than half of their salaries on rent.

In March figures from the House of Commons provided to shadow London minister Sadiq Khan, showed that average weekly rent in London takes up 49 per cent of the average weekly wage before tax.

In some boroughs the figure was as much as 69 per cent, while in Westminster renters spent 59 per cent of their income on rent.

The average salary in London is £28,000 per year, while average rents reached new highs of £1,425 recently.

Halifax also found that it would take 124 days for UK renters to have earned enough in their take-home pay to equal the cost of their rental payments for the whole year, eight days fewer than in 2014.

The figure is calculated using average annual rental payments as a percentage of average net income.

By contrast, mortgage freedom day took place on April 18, indicating that the average cost of home ownership is now significantly lower than the cost of renting.

However, this is eight days later than the previous year, which Halifax attributes to a £15 decrease in net annual income combined with an increase of £613 to the average annual mortgage repayment in the same period.