London's Sky-High Prices Thin the Ranks of Room-to-Rent Seekers
The number of people looking for a room to rent in London has continued to slide, data from a property search website show, in a sign that high rents are pushing even that modest goal out of reach for many residents.
The cost of renting a room in the capital has held above £1,000 ($1,350) a month since 2022, when property seekers idled by Covid 19 flooded back into the market as the economy reopened.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
British officials hopeful that US will start lifting car tariffs this week
UK officials are hopeful the US will begin lifting tariffs on British cars as soon as this week after the British trade secretary meets his US counterpart in London. Jonathan Reynolds is due to meet Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, on Tuesday evening to discuss the deal to lower US tariffs on cars, steel and aluminium. Downing Street is hopeful that the implementation of the deal will begin this week, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. The aim was to secure a proclamation from Donald Trump this week that would kickstart its implementation, a government official with knowledge of the process said. Related: Trump tariffs could wipe out European steel sector, senior industry figure says The US commerce department would then be tasked with enforcing the tariff reductions on UK goods. Officials expect tariffs on British cars to be reduced first, because the process is less complex than with aluminium and steel, according to the two people briefed on progress in the talks. Trump and Keir Starmer announced a 'historic' trade agreement last month that promised relief for key British industries affected by US import taxes. Trump agreed to reduce his 25% aluminium and steel tariffs to zero and slash his 25% tariff to 10% for up to 100,000 British cars a year. Two weeks ago Trump doubled US tariffs on steel and aluminium to 50% but said the UK would stay at the 25% rate until 9 July, pending enforcement of the deal and assuming that the British government 'complies with relevant aspects'. Ministers and negotiators are now racing to thrash out the details before that deadline. A trade department source stressed that the government could not predict the actions of the US administration. The UK is the only country so far that has struck an agreement with the US, though businesses have yet to feel its benefits. Starmer told MPs last Wednesday that he hoped the agreement with the US could come into effect 'in just a couple of weeks'. Cars are the UK's biggest export to the US, worth about £9bn last year. The value of the UK's steel and aluminium exports is much smaller, at about £700m a year, but the US is an important market for them. One of the remaining questions for British ministers is how the quota of 100,000 cars will be allocated. Options include a free-for-all system until the quota is met, splitting it into 25,000 car exports a quarter, or earmarking a certain number of exports for small and medium-sized manufacturers. One issue the US government is concerned about is steel from other countries being processed in the UK and then exported to the US at a 0% tariff. This has triggered fears that the deal could end up excluding the UK's biggest steelmaker, Indian-owned Tata Steel, because of the origin of some of its products. Lutnick is in London for trade talks with China that aim to resolve mounting tensions between the world's two largest economies. Washington and Beijing agreed a temporary truce over tariffs last month but each country has since accused the other of breaching the deal.
Bloomberg
7 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
FTSE 100 Live: Pound Rises as UK Inflation Stays Well Above BOE's Target
And in London, private monthly rents rose by an even-faster 7.7% in the 12 months to May, to an average of £2,249. Again, it's the slowest pace in more than two years, but means rents remain at historical highs. That could be deterring would-be tenants, Irina Anghel reports, as young people can't afford the deposit or rent needed to move to London. The number of would-be flat sharers searching on property search website SpareRoom has fallen to just half what it was at its peak in September 2022.
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump says UK is protected from tariffs ‘because I like them' as trade deal is signed off
Keir Starmer and Donald Trump have signed off a UK-US trade deal at the G7 summit in Canada, with the US president saying Britain would have protection against future tariffs 'because I like them'. The two leaders presented the deal, which covers aerospace and the auto sector, at the G7 venue in Kananaskis, Alberta. When reporters asked about steel, Trump said: 'We're going to let you have that information in a little while.' Under details released by the Department for Business and Trade, the UK aerospace sector will face no tariffs at all from the US, while the auto industry will have 10% tariffs, down from 25%. The steel industry still faces 25% tariffs for now, although this is less than the US's global rate of 50% on steel and aluminium. The UK business department said the two leaders had pledged to 'make progress towards 0% tariffs on core steel products as agreed'. However, the US executive order implementing the deal highlighted a possible hiccup over steel tariffs. The US still wants assurances about the Chinese owners of British Steel. In a paragraph setting out a future move to 'most-favoured-nation rates for steel and aluminum articles', the order says the UK has 'committed to working to meet American requirements on the security of the supply chains of steel and aluminum products intended for export to the United States and on the nature of ownership of relevant production facilities'. This would seem to refer to US worries about Jingye Group, which owns British Steel even though the UK government took control of the company in April to stop Jingye closing its Scunthorpe plant. Trump's administration wants assurances that Jingye does not use British Steel as a way to circumvent US tariffs. A full version of the deal first outlined in May had been seen as imminent, but Downing Street will be particularly happy to have it finalised at the summit, with full endorsement from a cheerful Trump – even if he did wrongly say the deal was with the EU. 'I just signed it, and it's done. And so we have our trade agreement with the European Union, and it's a fair deal for both, and it produces a lot of jobs, a lot of income,' Trump said. 'And we have many, many other ones coming. But you see, the level of enthusiasm is very good, but the relationship that we have is fantastic.' As has been his habit in recent meetings with Starmer, the mercurial president was warm in his praise for a fellow leader who is not a political soulmate. 'We're very longtime partners and allies and friends, and we've become friends in a short period of time. He's slightly more liberal than I am,' Trump joked at one point. Asked if the UK was now protected from future tariffs, Trump said: 'The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them – that's their ultimate protection.' He added: 'The prime minister has done a great job. I want to just tell that to the people of the United Kingdom. He's done a very, very good job. He's done what other people, they've been talking about this deal for six years, and he's done what they haven't been able to do. So he's done really a very good job.' The comments came just before the pair met for talks at the G7 event, where Starmer was poised to push the US president for new sanctions against Russia and to help end the war between Iran and Israel. In a separate announcement late on Monday, Downing Street said it expected further sanctions on Moscow to be set out at the summit, seeking to 'ratchet up pressure until Russia is ready to commit to a full and unconditional ceasefire'. No 10 said there would be more details on Tuesday.
