The Pandemic, Financial Health and Housing Security

The London Assembly Housing Committee has published a report ‘The Pandemic, Financial Health and Housing Security’ which highlights the issues many Londoners face when it comes to their housing costs.



The investigation looked at how different groups of Londoners have been affected and the ways in which high housing costs have exacerbated the challenges of the pandemic and affected the security of their housing. The report highlights a number of people’s specific living situations and includes findings from two surveys: one from Talk London and the other a representative survey by YouGov.

The YouGov survey found:

• 13 per cent of people in the survey who own or rent their property[4] felt more at risk of losing their home in January 2022 than before the pandemic. Across London, this could mean around 750,000 Londoners are currently feeling more at risk of losing their home.[5]
• 10 per cent of people who were renting from a council or housing association and were keeping up with payments before the pandemic are now struggling. That could mean almost 90,000 people in London who are newly struggling with social rent payments.
• Around eight per cent of respondents who had been renting from a private landlord and keeping up with rental payments in 2020, were then struggling by January 2022. This means that potentially 100,000 private renters across London are now struggling with their rent.
• Combining social and private renters, nearly 200,000 Londoners may now be struggling to pay their rent.
• Five per cent of those who owned property with a mortgage and were keeping up with their mortgage payments in 2020 were then struggling in January 2022. Across London, this means that there could be almost 60,000 people struggling to keep up with mortgage payments who weren’t struggling at the start of the pandemic.