"Half your income now goes on rent"

From The Metro:

Young workers unable to afford their own homes are spending almost half their take-home pay on rent, a report reveals. The private tenants typically shell out £704 a month – 43 per cent of their wages...

Landlords put up prices by 8.2 per cent on average last year, the government’s English Housing Survey report shows.

Taking into account wage rises, the percentage of earnings spent on rent rose six per cent. Nearly half of 25- to 34-year-olds – 48 per cent – are now tenants, up from 21 per cent a decade ago.

The proportion of privately renting families has increased from nine per cent to 24 per cent.

It's worse than that.

Nearly half your earned income is taken in tax. The amount of Employer's NIC and VAT is nearly as much again as the PAYE you see deducted from your wages. Of the half that's left, nearly half goes in rent.

So broadly speaking about two-thirds of what you earn goes in publicly and privately collected tax (rent).