Revealed: Shropshire's average rent prices and how much they have risen
Campaigners are warning rents "continue to rise faster than wages" after prices in Shropshire skyrocketed by 30 per cent in five years.
Provisional figures from the ONS show the average private rent in the Shropshire Council area reached £789 per month in the year to August – up 5 per cent from £749 a year prior.
The rise was even steeper in Telford and Wrekin, where the average rent reached £808 per month in the same period – up 7 per cent from £757 a year prior.
The data means that the average monthly rent has risen 29 per cent in Shropshire since five years ago when it was around £611 per month, and 30 per cent in Telford and Wrekin where renters were paying £622 per month in 2020.
The county still has cheaper rent than many other places in the West Midlands, however: the average monthly rent for the region was £935.
Solihull had the highest rental cost in the region at £1,240 per month, while the lowest was in Stoke-on-Trent at £678.
Nationally, the average private rent in Great Britain was £1,360 per month in August, up £73 per month from a year before.
Ben Twomey, chief executive of campaign group Generation Rent, said: "Homes are the foundations of our lives, but rents continue to rise faster than our wages, swallowing more and more of our income.
"High rents push people into homelessness and trap them in temporary accommodation, they pull children into poverty and prevent people from saving for the future.
"We rightly have caps on our energy and water bills, but the same protections don’t exist to stop landlords from pricing us out of our homes.
"The Government can and must act through devolving powers to mayors to limit rent increases in their areas."
