RENTING is now “beyond the reach” of lower-paid working families across Hampshire, a report has warned.

A typical couple with one child is forced to set aside up to 41 per cent of their net income to pay their private landlord, an investigation by a think-tank found.

That is significantly higher than the widely accepted definition of affordability – which is that rent should gobble up no more than 35 per cent of net income.

Vidhya Alakeson, of the Resolution Foundation, said “even a very modest rented home” was unaffordable for low-income families in Hampshire and across the South East.

Yet, he added: “Private renting is increasingly the only option for millions of families who are not wealthy enough to afford a buyer’s deposit, nor vulnerable enough to qualify for social housing.

“Many low to middle income families are faced with the unenviable choice of forgoing other essentials in order to pay for housing – or living in overcrowded conditions to reduce their housing costs.”

But Mark Prisk, the housing minister, described the report as “alarmist and factually flawed”, saying: “It suggests that rents are soaring, when in fact they have fallen in real terms.

“And it fails to recognise that housing benefit provides a safety net, which ensures that up to a third of private properties in most areas are affordable to low income families.”

The row blew up after the Resolution Foundation used housing market data to assess the options for a couple with one child and an annual net income of £22,000.

It found private renting would swallow up more than 35 per cent of that income in no fewer than 125 of 376 local authorities in Britain, almost exactly one third.

They include all districts in Hampshire except for the Isle of Wight, where a family with £22,000, after tax would need to spend 30 per cent of their earnings and Gosport (32 per cent).

The highest proportions would be lost in Winchester (41 per cent) and Basingstoke and Deane (41 per cent), followed by Eastleigh (38 per cent) and New Forest (38 per cent).

But private rents are only slightly lower in Southampton (37 per cent), Fareham (37 per cent) and Test Valley (37 per cent), the study found.

The think-tank examined private renting because the sky-high price of property already rules out home ownership for families on such incomes across much of the South.

That would swallow up an even higher proportion of net income in Winchester (48 per cent), New Forest (45 per cent), Eastleigh (42 per cent), Fareham (41 per cent) and Test Valley (40 per cent) – but not in Southampton (35 per cent).