NEARLY half the 1.5 million children growing up in poverty in the private rental sector are pushed into it by housing costs, new research reveals today.

The findings, compiled by the Resolution Foundation, highlight that reducing housing costs should be a core element of the government’s strategy to reduce child poverty.

According to the think tank, private renters are on average paying three times as much as mortgagors for the same amount of housing — £11 per square metre versus £3, going by 2021 figures.

The report recommends repegging Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of local rents as the simplest way for the government to address poverty driven by high rents. 

This would allow recipients to afford at least three in 10 properties in their area, the think tank says.

The analysis also found that if 300,000 privately renting households with children could be moved into social rented homes, the government would save around £850 million per year by 2030 on subsidising private rents.

Resolution Foundation economist Alex Clegg said: “Over a million children living in poverty today would not be below the poverty line were it not for sky-high housing costs, especially in the private rented sector.

“The government could lift 75,000 children out of poverty by the end of the decade if it spent £1.8 billion to repeg Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of rents.

“But in the longer term, investment in house building — especially social housing — is essential to both reduce the rents that low-income families are paying and ease the pressure on the housing benefit bill.”