UK renters are three times as likely to suffer food insecurity

BRITISH renters are around three times as likely to experience food and energy insecurity than peers who own their own homes, official data showed.

Adults renting their home had a 2.9 times higher chance of energy insecurity — meaning they were unable to meet basic needs such as heating their homes or having a warm bath. They were 3.2 times as likely to face food insecurity, where they couldn’t afford enough food — or the right kinds — to eat a healthy diet.

The data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Monday (Feb 13) laid bare how the cost-of-living crunch is weighing disproportionately on certain households, leaving a wide gap between the rich and the poor.

Food insecurity was 2.6, 2 and 1.8 times more common in the North East, East and North West of England respectively — three regions which are home to some of the UK’s most deprived areas.

Separate data from the ONS on Monday showed the North East was also the region where people were most likely to be unpaid carers, at 10.1 per cent of the population.

Adults earning less than £30,000 (S$48,535) were between 2.1 and 2.6 times as likely to experience energy insecurity as those earning £40,000 or more, and the odds were between 1.7 and 3.1 times higher for food insecurity.

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The figures come just weeks after separate data from the ONS showed Britain’s poorest households are bearing the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis.

And while the ruling Conservative Party vowed to “level up” Britain during the last general election three years ago, the gulf between the UK’s capital and its regions has widened according to Bloomberg UK’s Levelling Up Scorecard.

Adults suffering from moderate to severe depressive symptoms were also 2.3 times and 3.1 times as likely to experience energy and food insecurity respectively.

Molly Broome, an economist at think-tank the Resolution Foundation, said the cost-of-living squeeze had been “particularly acute for disadvantaged groups over the cold winter months”.

“Ethnic minority families and those with children are also badly affected,” she said. “This is why the government is right to prioritise vulnerable families with extra support through cost-of-living payments.” BLOOMBERG