Nearly half of working families are cutting back on food or clothing to pay rent or mortgage

Almost 50 per cent of working families have had to cut back on essential items

Around one in 10 households surveyed said they had skipped meals (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty)

Nearly half of working families have having to cut back on essential food and clothing to pay the mounting costs of the housing crisis, new research suggests.

Rising house prices and rents caused by a shortage of affordable homes mean the average household now spends 29 per cent of its monthly income on housing costs. Those locked out of the housing market who privately rent fare even worse, spending 43 per cent of their salaries.

Now joint research by housing charity Shelter and pollsters YouGov found that the equivalent of 3.7 million families say they have cut back on buying essential food or clothing to pay their mortgage or rent.

A total of 44 per cent of households surveyed said they had had cut back on those items. Around one in 5 – 19 per cent – said they had had to cut back on buying children’s clothing, while around one in 10 – 9 per cent – said they had skipped meals.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said the charity spoke to parents “every day” who “live in constant fear that a cut in hours could tip them into homelessness”.

“These figures are an acute reminder of the tough choices that working families are having to make to keep a roof over their children’s heads,” he said.

“Any one of us could hit a bump along life’s road, but with housing now taking up the lion’s share of people’s pay-packets, any drop in income can all too quickly leave families at risk of losing their home.

“With millions of working families struggling and a period of economic uncertainty ahead, now is the time for the new government to both protect and improve our welfare safety net so that it can be there to support families who fall on hard times.”

Theresa May has acknowledged that Britain has a “homes deficit” and that more need to be built. She has yet to unveil any policies to tackle the housing crisis, however.

The Government says it has doubled its housing budget from £4bn to £8bn. House building by the state is however far down on peak levels. In 1969-70, local councils built 175,550 houses; in 2015-16 they began work on just 1,480.

A Government spokesman said: “Building the homes this country needs is an absolute priority for the government and we’ve set out the most ambitious housing programme in a generation, including doubling the affordable housing budget to £8bn for 400,000 more homes.

“There are more people in work than ever before, millions have had a pay rise through the national living wage, and we continue to spend around £90bn a year on working age benefits – including around £25bn in Housing Benefit - to ensure a strong safety net for the most vulnerable.”