What does a decent life look like in the UK today? A safe, settled home is a keystone on which individuals and families build a decent quality of life, good health and the connections with place and people we need to live full lives. For the growing number of people renting privately, however, homes are neither affordable nor secure.  

As the Renters’ Rights Bill moves through Parliament, more attention is turning to the day-to-day challenges and uncertainty faced by 4.6 million people renting their homes privately in England. Our latest report, Caught in a Trap: Low wellbeing in the UK 2025, brings new evidence to the conversation, showing the serious toll that private renting is taking on people’s lives.  

Drawing on new analysis from the English Housing Survey and Understanding Society survey, we find that private renters are three times more likely than homeowners to be in “wellbeing poverty,” scoring 4 or below out of 10 when asked how satisfied they are with life.  

A hidden wellbeing penalty 

This is no small difference. One in ten private renters is living with persistently low life satisfaction. This finding should ring alarm bells. For too many people, renting is making life harder and unhappier.  

Our analysis shows that private renting carries a distinct wellbeing penalty. After accounting for income, health and other personal circumstances, private renters are more likely to experience low wellbeing than similar people in other types of housing. Something about the structure and experience of renting privately is actively undermining people’s quality of life.   

And this isn’t just widespread – it is also costly. Using official wellbeing valuation methods from the Treasury, we estimate the wellbeing penalty to be worth around £3,700 per person, per year. That’s a significant and ongoing hit to the wellbeing of millions across England.  

What is it about private renting that causes this penalty?  

Why renting hurts wellbeing 

Organisations working in housing and homelessness point to three key issues: affordability, security, and quality. These issues are intricately connected and reinforce each other. Poor-quality homes can make people less secure; insecurity that leads to frequent home moves can result in higher costs, and higher costs limit people’s options.  

We are continuing to explore how these problems interact, but our latest analysis shows that even when we take these overlaps into account, affordability and insecurity stand out as the biggest drivers of low wellbeing for private renters.  

Private renters spend 39% of their income on housing, compared to 29% for social renters and 20% for homeowners with mortgages. Rents have gone up by 18% over the past five years, and rent increases continue to outpace inflation. Now, three in 10 (28%) of private rented households find it “fairly” or “very” difficult to pay rent. And this pressure around affordability explains around two-fifths of the wellbeing gap. Constantly having to stretch every pound means making tough choices, cutting back on essentials, missing out on opportunities and living with a constant worry about making ends meet.  

Insecurity also plays a key role. Nearly 40% of private renters have lived in their home for less than a year, and many face the ongoing risk of no-fault evictions. Under Section 21 of the Housing Act, landlords can evict tenants with just two months’ notice. That uncertainty makes it hard to settle, plan or build community ties.  

Our new modelling suggests that if private renters had the same wellbeing outcomes as similar people in other types of housing, 110,000 fewer people would be living in wellbeing poverty in England. As more individuals and families are pushed into the private rented sector, that number – and the national cost to wellbeing – is likely to grow.  

Scotland shows change is possible  

Since 2017, private renters in Scotland have had stronger protections, including open-ended tenancies and limits on rent increases. In the years since, the wellbeing gap between private renters and other groups has narrowed.  

While further work is to be done, if these improvements were entirely attributable to renting reform, the gain could be worth as much as £4 billion a year. With the Renters’ Rights Bill currently passing through Parliament, it’s a powerful example of housing policies that can improve the quality of life for people struggling with low wellbeing, even in the context of our broken housing market.  

The opportunity of the Renters Reform Bill 

England now has the chance to follow suit. The Renters’ Rights Bill proposes to abolish Section 21 evictions, bolster protections, and give renters more power to challenge unfair rent hikes. If implemented effectively, it could lift around 50,000 people out of wellbeing poverty.  

The Bill reached its Third Reading in the House of Lords on 21 July 2025, the final opportunity for peers to debate and amend the legislation. It now returns to the House of Commons, where MPs will consider the Lords’ changes. The coming weeks will be critical in determining how strong the final legislation will be, and how well it delivers for renters. 

Legislation alone won’t fix the problem. Without proper enforcement from already stretched local councils, new rights risk becoming just promises on paper. And the Bill does little to tackle the root cause that matters most: affordability.  

We need to support renters today, as well as build homes for tomorrow  

Housing is more than just bricks and mortar. It is about security and stability – the ability to build a life. The wellbeing gap faced by private renters is yet another example of how the system isn’t working.  

The Renters’ Rights Bill offers a chance to improve things, but it won’t solve affordability on its own. Renters continue to face rising costs that outpace incomes, and this needs urgent attention. We’re continuing to research what genuine affordability looks like and how it can be achieved. Building more homes is essential, but those homes must be truly affordable to make a real difference.  

How the Bill is implemented will shape its impact: done right, we have shown that it could improve life for millions of renters today. It is crucial that, alongside reforming renting and enforcements, we also tackle affordability head-on.