Is the Budget about to fix Britain’s rental crisis, or make it even harder to find an affordable home?

Renting is serving millions of people well because demand remains strong and people rely on it to move for work, study and major life changes.

The numbers coming out of the ONS underline that reality, estimating that around 19% of UK households rent privately, which is roughly 5.4 million homes.

Even as rents continue to rise, people still turn to the private rented sector because it is the only part of the housing system that offers the flexibility and immediacy their lives require.

Unlike home ownership, renting supports mobility, lets people move quickly for work, removes the burden of major upkeep, and, in shared living, gives people the connection and support that comes from living with others. None of that is the issue.

The pressure comes from rising housing costs that force people to make decisions based on affordability rather than suitability. The latest ONS figures out this month show that house prices are up 2.6% in the last 12 months to September 2025 – widening this affordability gap further still.

Increasing numbers of people are struggling to live anywhere near where they work, and that is what property managers, landlords and tenants tell us every day.

Unless next week’s Autumn Budget is willing to confront rising housing costs directly, everything else will be a distraction.

The risk with the upcoming Budget is familiar. Over the past few years, the policy focus has largely been on taxing the supply side. Higher stamp duty on second homes, tougher mortgage interest rules for landlords and proposals to extend National Insurance to rental income.

These may land well politically but these choices all increase the cost of providing homes in the private rented sector, which ultimately feeds through to higher rents and fewer available properties. It’s the opposite of what renters need.

When too much of someone’s income disappears on rent before they have even covered transport or food, it restricts choice, people stay in roles they have outgrown and avoid career moves because relocating has become financially out of reach.

We see tenants who stay because they like the home and the people in it, not because they’re financially stuck. That’s how renting should work. But we also see people who want to move, progress or shift their lifestyle and hesitate because the next step costs too much.

That hesitation is shaped by policy, not by the rental sector. Governments lean towards measures that look good in headlines such as tax changes, home ownership incentives and anything that sounds decisive.

They’re politically tidy, but they don’t improve affordability for the millions who rent. That’s how other fiscal goals keep getting prioritised over secure, affordable housing.

A serious Budget would recognise this. It would support the delivery of more high quality rental homes, including shared living, by reducing the cost of bringing them to market rather than increasing it.

It would help landlords and property managers upgrade ageing stock without the cost of every improvement being pushed straight onto tenants. And it would start treating secure, affordable rental housing as economic infrastructure, not as a secondary concern behind more politically visible goals like boosting home ownership.

Younger workers and low to middle earners are the clearest examples of who gets left out when policy overlooks renting. Many earn decent salaries and choose renting because it suits how they live and work, yet they still struggle to find homes that balance quality and affordability.

That happens because policy keeps pushing up the cost of supplying rental homes while focusing support on buyers rather than renters.

Meaningful support would tilt the system back into balance by reducing those cost pressures, helping property managers keep homes to a good standard while backing more shared living so people can afford to live near their jobs. In this economic climate, that’s what practical support for renters actually looks like.

This week the government will present its Budget as another step toward stability. Recognising the central role of the rental sector would be a start. Changing policies that push up the cost of supplying rental homes would go further, such as easing the stamp duty surcharge on second homes, reviewing the mortgage interest rules for landlords and dropping proposals to extend National Insurance to rental income.

These changes would reduce pressure across the sector and support the people who rely on renting every day.

Until affordability is taken seriously, the country will keep talking about stability while a huge share of the public struggles to find it.

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Vann Vogstad is the founder and CEO of COHO, the platform used to manage thousands of shared homes across the UK.

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