Call for rent cap in Wales to help key workers

A rent cap is needed in Wales to help essential workers struggling to find affordable housing, Generation Rent says.

It warns that a one-bedroom flat in Cardiff accounts for 48% of a teaching assistant’s salary.

The campaign group says this highlights the wider issue of rent affordability across Wales, with many key worker roles facing similar challenges.

Generation Rent’s chief executive Ben Twomey was speaking to the Welsh Parliament’s Local Government and Housing Committee, urging them to address the lack of affordable housing options for private renters.

‘Slam the brakes’ on these costs by regulating rents

Mr Twomey said: “There are enormous affordability issues for key workers across the whole of Wales, but specifically for teaching assistants.

“This is why I say that within the cost-of-living crisis is a cost of renting crisis, and it’s devastating Welsh communities.”

He urged the Welsh Government to ‘slam the brakes’ on these costs by regulating rents.

10 essential roles across various sectors

An analysis by the organisation of 10 essential roles across various sectors, including education, healthcare, social care, construction, retail and hospitality revealed that renting a home within the recommended 30% of income threshold proved impossible for all 10 roles in Cardiff.

The situation wasn’t much better in other parts of Wales.

Generation Rent says that half of the country’s 22 local councils were deemed unaffordable for teaching assistants.

These included areas like Gwynedd, Conwy, Flintshire, and Wrexham in north Wales, as well as Carmarthenshire, Bridgend, Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff, Torfaen, Monmouthshire, and Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales.

Most expensive areas to rent in Wales

The most expensive areas to rent in Wales were Cardiff, Monmouthshire, Vale of Glamorgan, Swansea and Newport.

For the five lowest-paid professions – teaching assistants, hairdressers, kitchen assistants, pharmacy assistants and receptionists – affordable housing options were scarce.

Nearly a third (7 out of 22) of Welsh local authorities are out of reach, the research revealed.

Watch Mr Twomey speaking to the Committee: