Renting in London is unaffordable for most key workers, claims an activist group.

Generation Rent claims that nine types of key worker would fail letting agent affordability checks for the average one-bed home in every London borough.

And it also claims the average London wages is less than 2.5 times the average rent.

Using a hairdresser’s income as an example, it adds that in seven boroughs, the average one-bed home demands more rent than the average hairdresser in London earns in a year.

In a statement, Generation Rent says: “While letting agents are less likely to let you a home if it costs more than 40% of your income, a home is considered affordable, permitting a decent quality of life, if it costs 30% of the your income or less.”

Its analysis of rents across all 32 London boroughs and average London earnings for 15 key worker occupations shows that even people in traditionally stable professions are being “pushed out of inner London boroughs.” 

It says workers such as nurses, teachers and transport staff would have to spend more than 40% to stay in inner London, meaning in reality most are pushed into shared houses or outer boroughs.

In eight central London boroughs not even a secondary school teacher, the highest-paid of the 15 occupations analysed, with an average £53,214 salary, would be able to rent the average one-bed.

The activist body states: “Even in outer boroughs such as Barking and Dagenham and Bexley, where rents are comparatively lower, affordable rents remain out of reach. Many essential workers, including teaching assistants and pharmacy assistants, would still pay over half their income on rent.”

Generation Rent is the latest of many organisations calling on Mayor Sadiq Khan and the government to build more affordable homes.