Maidstone and Tonbridge & Malling Among the Worst-Hit as Rent Outpaces Pay

Renters in Maidstone and Tonbridge & Malling have seen their rent eat into their pay packets faster than almost anywhere else in England and Wales over the past decade, according to a new analysis of official data by research publisher Open Research Forum. The study compared average monthly rent against median monthly salary in 2015 and 2025 across 286 local authorities, to track how much of a typical pay cheque now goes on rent - what it calls the "rent burden."

Maidstone's rent burden rose from 32.53% of median monthly salary in 2015 to 40.00% in 2025 - a 22.97% increase, the ninth-largest of any local authority in England and Wales. Average monthly rent in the borough rose 57.35% over the decade, from £809 to £1,273, while the median monthly salary rose by just 27.96%, from £2,487 to £3,183. Tonbridge & Malling fared only slightly better, with a 22.45% increase in rent burden over the same period - also far above the national picture.

Across all 286 local authorities studied, the average increase in rent burden was just 4.1%, and average rent rose 47.5% in cash terms. That makes Maidstone's and Tonbridge & Malling's increases roughly five times the typical rise elsewhere, and puts both boroughs well inside the national top 20 for declining affordability - not an isolated blip, but part of a pattern the report says runs across the whole county. "Kent stands out as one of the most consistently squeezed counties in England and Wales," the analysis states, pointing to Folkestone and Hythe, Medway and Swale as also posting some of the steepest rises nationally.

The report floats inward migration of London commuters as one likely driver, noting Kent's affordability declines "far exceed those seen by local authorities in other home counties." Neither Sevenoaks nor Tunbridge Wells appears in the report's own list of steepest risers - but pulling their figures from the underlying data tells two quite different stories, not one of being let off lightly.

Sevenoaks already had the highest rent burden of all four West Kent boroughs back in 2015 - 47.5% of median salary, against Maidstone's 32.53% - and it's stayed almost exactly there: 47.4% in 2025, a change of roughly zero. That's not good news dressed up as good news: rent and salary both rose by about 45% over the decade, broadly in step, so Sevenoaks renters were already handing over nearly half their pay before this decade started and still are. Tunbridge Wells saw genuine movement - burden up from 34.4% to 37.1%, a 7.8% rise - nearly double the national average, just well short of Maidstone and Tonbridge & Malling's rate of decline.

The findings land just as the ONS's Price Index of Private Rents became an official statistic in May 2026, formalising what renters have been reporting anecdotally for years. UK private rents rose 3.7% in the year to June 2026 alone, taking the typical national rent to £1,393 a month - on top of the decade-long squeeze this analysis tracks locally. For a Maidstone renter on a median salary, that squeeze now means two full working days a week, rather than roughly a day and a half ten years ago, going straight to rent before anything else is paid for.

Source: Open Research Forum, rent affordability analysis 2015-2025, using data from the ONS's Earnings and hours worked, place of residence and Price Index of Private Rents datasets