article: Analysis shows the average rent of a one-bedroom property in almost half of all districts, boroughs and cities would cost more than 30% of the median take-home salary for the area. The problem is most acute in London and the South East. The government said it was committed to building more affordable homes. BBC England's data unit analysed the average rents for different types of property in each local authority area and the median weekly wage for those areas, using figures published by the Office for National Statistics. According to Shelter and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, spending more than a third of your disposable income on rent or a mortgage means you may not be able to afford other basic needs. Based on average rents and median weekly wages, our investigation found: Dan Wilson Craw, a policy manager at Generation Rent, which campaigns for affordable housing, said: "Across London and the South East, the only option for average earners is to squeeze themselves into ever more crowded flat shares. "This might work for some, but it's a completely unsustainable situation for anyone who wants to settle down. Unless rents start coming down, the capital and its hinterland will start losing workers and that will weaken the national economy." Kerry Taylor works as a teaching assistant in a special school in Stratford, earning about £350 a week in take-home pay. She pays £825 a month to rent a room in a shared house in Lambeth, south London, where she has her own bathroom and kitchen. She said: "I would like to get on the housing ladder but I have resigned myself to the fact that working in social care isn't going to get you the right salary, let alone give you the chance to save up for anything. "I would love to own a home so that no one can kick me out, as I now have to leave my house as the landlady wants to sell. "I've lived in Manchester, Edinburgh and my home town in Yorkshire but I've never been happier and more comfortable than in London. This is really important to me and I have created a great network of friends so the idea of moving and starting again somewhere else, as I've done twice before, is too exhausting to think about. "I hope it doesn't come to having to leave but I suppose I can't rule it out completely if it gets that desperate." Freelance musician and composer Matt Winkworth has been renting houses around Oxford for 10 years, but to gain security he has decided to buy a narrow boat, which he intends to live in. The 31-year-old said: "Buying a boat is something that I've been thinking about doing for a long time. "I've thought about getting a mortgage, but I would have to move out of the area that I work [in], it's impossible to buy anywhere in the South East. "[Living in the boat] will be the first time I have lived on my own." Sophie Mogridge moved to Oxford last year and lives in
summary: People spend more than a third of their disposable income on rent across large parts of England, a BBC investigation has found.