Housing pinched: Understanding which households spend the most on housing costs

Close to 1.6 million UK households – the housing pinched – are spending more than half their disposable income on the ongoing costs of housing each month.

Not all households spending more than one third of their income on housing (the threshold at which people are far more likely to find making housing payments difficult) will find this a struggle, particularly those with higher incomes for whom having up to two thirds leftover still represents a sizeable sum of money. We therefore focus on a subset of this group who are even closer to the edge, spending more than half of their disposable income on the ongoing costs of accommodation. We call this group the ‘housing pinched’, a group who are less likely to be able to sustain their position without difficulty. Finding out who these households are and where they live is an important first step in identifying the circumstances in which housing costs bite hardest and who needs most help.