Figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) found that renting alone cost middle-income tenants in Bury a fifth of their pre-tax wages before the cost of living escalated.

The average middle-income worker living alone in Bury was spending around 19 per cent of their income on rent last year.

The cost of living soared in April which added to the financial strain put on renters across the country.

The government recently unveiled its renters’ reform bill which gives greater legal power for renters to challenge landlords on unfit homes and unjust price rises.

Homeless charity, Shelter, said the bill is "a gamechanger for England’s 11m private renters" but also expressed concern for tenants living on a knife-edge as the cost-of-living soars.

The ONS highlighted that the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom property in Bury stood at £500 in the 12 months to March.

Separate figures show the median wage of full-time employees in the area in 2021 was £31,341 per year.

In England, the median cost of a one-bedroom property was £700 per month in the year to March, while the median salary was £31,490.

This meant an average lone tenant was spending approximately 27 per cent of their income on rent.

Median rent across all property types in Bury rose from £600 per month in the 12 months to March 2021 to £650 last year.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said millions of tenants are "living on a knife-edge with no wriggle room to help then navigate rising costs" as private rents rocket and swallow an increasingly large portion of people's income.

Ms Neate also urged the government to end the freeze on housing benefit immediately, providing a safety net for the almost half of renters who have no savings and preventing rising homelessness.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) have said that the most vulnerable will receive at least £1,200 of direct payments to limit the rising cost of living.

Action group Generation Rent said that some middle-income earners being unable to afford their own one-bed flat is a "shameful mark of failure by successive governments to take housing seriously".

Dan Wilson Craw, deputy director at Generation Rent, said: "Renters are bearing the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis – unable to force their landlords to properly insulate their homes, and facing huge rent increases in the aftermath of the pandemic.

"In the short term, we need a freeze on rents but long term we need much greater efforts to build homes in places people want to live."

In response, a DLUHC spokesperson said: "We are extending the decent homes standard to the private rented sector, giving all renters the legal right to a warm home, while empowering them to challenge poor housing standards and unjustified rent increases."