‘It’s a total disaster!’ How soaring rents, cutthroat competition and unscrupulous landlords are breaking tenants

Katharine had been renting in London for nearly two decades, almost all her adult life, when she lost her job last year. No longer able to afford £900 a month to rent her one-bedroom flat in Crystal Palace, she relocated to Stratford-upon-Avon.

But she missed the capital. “I’m a Londoner through and through,” says Katharine, 40. “Coming back was a matter of when, rather than if.”