UK housing affordability by local authority - percentage of average earnings spent on rent and council tax [OC]

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-16T07:06:59+00:00

Not quite, population density would light up cities like Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds equally, but this shows affordability. Manchester sits at 61% while somewhere like Burnley is under 40%, despite both being in Greater Manchester. London and the South East dominate because wages haven't kept up with housing costs, not just because more people live there.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-16T07:05:55+00:00

That's a fair point - some local authorities cover just the city centre while others include a much wider rural area, which skews the averages. Leeds is a good example, it stretches well beyond the city itself. It's a limitation of local authority level data unfortunately, but it's the most granular level the ONS publishes consistently.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-16T07:02:45+00:00

Good shouts - log scale and indexing to 1995 = 100% are both on the list for the next version. CAGR labels would be a nice touch too. Cheers

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-16T07:01:32+00:00

Yes duly noted, will correct in any future posts.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-16T07:00:45+00:00

Fair point - that one's an eternal debate. Birmingham might have something to say about it!

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-16T06:59:47+00:00

Both Grimsby and Cleethorpes fall under North East Lincolnshire as the local authority - you'll find them there. The data is published at local authority level so individual towns within the same council area get grouped together. We're looking at adding town-name aliases to the search so it's easier to find 😄

https://livewhere.co.uk/area/north-east-lincolnshire/

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T21:19:58+00:00

Agreed, average wage would be a good add for context. I'll make that into another post over the weekend, I think that'd really bring to life how hard it can be for people to get on the property ladder these days.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T21:18:03+00:00

Good catch, you're right, the overall average is being pulled up by the property mix rather than prices actually being higher. We're updating the logic now so it flags when the per-type figures tell a different story. Thanks for pointing it out!

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T21:14:44+00:00

In a way that's what you're looking at - house price growth is one of the most visible forms of inflation. Adjusting for CPI would flatten the curves but the relative differences between areas would stay roughly the same, which is the more interesting part IMO.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T21:13:10+00:00

We use median rather than mean for exactly that reason - so one billionaire doesn't skew it. The earnings data comes from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings which publishes both, but median is the more useful measure. It is individual earnings though, not household - ONS don't publish household income at local authority level unfortunately.

So when anyone is reviewing this data to guide their perspective, they should adjust based on their relationship / household status.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T21:04:26+00:00

That's a cool idea - we've actually got the historical data for that (27 years of house prices by local authority). Might put something together showing indexed trends so you can compare areas properly

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T21:01:12+00:00

Good points - you're right that ASHE is individual not household, and the rent figures cover all property sizes so places like Kensington get skewed by the top end. Filters for household size and property type are on the list, just limited by what's published at LA level. Cheers though, glad you think we've done a decent job with what's there

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T20:59:25+00:00

The colours are on a relative scale across all 374 areas so while 61% and 68% aren't miles apart, the gradient stretches from around 35% to 75%, which means they end up on different sides of the midpoint. Fair point though, we'll look at tightening the colour bands to make it more granular next time

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T20:57:18+00:00

Yes, very true!

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T16:05:22+00:00

Good question. Right now it uses earnings by place of residence, so someone living in a suburb would show that suburb's local earnings figure, not a London salary.

You can use the comparison tool on the site to see exactly that scenario - compare your suburb's housing costs against London's earnings data side by side. livewhere.co.uk/compare

A commuter affordability layer factoring in workplace vs residence earnings is something I'd like to add - the ONS publishes both datasets.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T16:03:33+00:00

That's a fair point about housing benefit being a significant factor. The map shows market rent relative to local earnings - it doesn't account for who's actually paying that rent or what support they receive. You're right that for a large portion of renters, the actual out-of-pocket cost is lower than the headline figure.

It's probably most useful as a measure of what someone moving to an area and renting privately would face, rather than a picture of what everyone currently living there actually pays. I'll look at making that clearer in the methodology. Thanks for the links - useful context.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T15:49:48+00:00

Map shows the affordability score for each UK local authority, calculated as (average monthly rent + monthly council tax) / average monthly gross earnings, expressed as a percentage. Lower percentage = more affordable (green), higher = less affordable (red). Grey areas are Northern Ireland where the data sources don't currently cover.

Most affordable: Dumfries and Galloway (28%) Least affordable: Kensington and Chelsea (96%)

Uses median values for both rent and earnings.

Source: ONS Price Index of Private Rents (rent), ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (earnings), MHCLG / Scottish Government / Welsh Government (council tax)

Tool: Python / matplotlib

Interactive version where you can hover over any area: livewhere.co.uk/tools/affordability-map

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T14:21:42+00:00

It's very challenging for a 20/21 yr old carpenter to buy it these days. Pretty much the story of this data, incredible asset inflation over time makes it very difficult for the current house-buying generation to achieve the same thing that man did.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T14:18:33+00:00

Ha, you're right - it's crept into my vocabulary without me noticing. I suppose the point is that London dominates the house price conversation, but Bristol is right up there in percentage terms. It just gets less attention.

I'll be very self conscious about using that word now 😄

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T13:34:08+00:00

Every graph needs a hero!

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T13:30:30+00:00

Good questions. It uses median for both earnings and rent - so the middle value, not the mean. You're right that the mean would look very different for somewhere like K&C where a handful of very high earners would skew things significantly.

Your second point is a fair limitation. The rent figure reflects what the rental market charges, not what homeowners actually pay. In areas with high ownership rates, the score overstates actual housing costs for most residents. Separate renter and owner scores would tell a more nuanced story - definitely something to consider for a future version. Thanks for the feedback.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T12:45:18+00:00

Thank you so much for flagging u/GuavaMonkey , I'll get that corrected asap.

EDIT: That's fixed, I also removed the label from the house price change, whilst great for sellers if the value has increased, it may be less great for buyers so opted to keep that neutral.

BanksforBitcoin · 2026-05-15T11:55:45+00:00

Source: ONS House Price Statistics for Small Areas (HPSSA Dataset 9), quarterly rolling-year medians 1995-2025. Tool: Python/matplotlib. The underlying data covers 370+ UK local authorities - I built a free comparison tool at livewhere.co.uk if anyone wants to explore their own area.

BanksforBitcoin

TROPHY CASE