SWINDON tenants are having to fork out over 26 per cent more for their homes than they did six years ago and the increase show rents are outpacing wages, according to figures release by the GMB union.

They showed tenants were paying an average £695 to rent a two bed flat – up from £550 in 2011. The increase was the highest of 10 areas in Wiltshire and Dorset and rent was accounting for a higher percentage of people’s wages.

It came as no surprise to Swindon Housing Action campaigner Martin Wicks who said: “The situation in Swindon for a long time has been one where I think it is a reflection of the shortage of genuinely affordable accommodation to rent.”

Rents were significantly outpacing earnings and last year alone there was an increase of somewhere in the region of 15 to 17 per cent.

GMB southern regional secretary Paul Maloney said pay had to rise to allow workers to afford the ever rising rents.

“The public sector pay cap and the below inflation pay rises in both the public and private sectors has to end to avoid a drop in consumer spending, which, if not checked will lead to a further recession,” he said.

The figures showed an urgent and massive building programme by the authorities in Wiltshire and Dorset, especially homes for rent, was essential.

“We have been talking about this problem for far too long, there can be no excuses for not providing housing to people that they can afford to live in on average wages,” he said.

Government decisions in the 1980s to sell council housing stock and not replace it but to pay landlords housing benefit instead had been a huge and expensive mistake he claimed.

“Last year, for example, £24 billion was spent on housing benefit, with much of this public money ending up untaxed in bank accounts in offshore tax havens," he said.

“If a fraction of that amount had been spent on social housing for rent, the strain on the tax payer would be less and people would have housing they can afford to live in.”

Swindon median rents were the lowest of the 10 areas - Wiltshire, East Dorset, Christchurch, Purbeck, Poole, North Dorset, West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland, and Bournemouth.

In Wiltshire the rent figure was £600 in 2011 and average household earnings were £2,219.27. Last year they were £725 and £2,243,32.

Swindon actually overtook Weymouth, where the numbers were £625 and £1,883.33, five years ago and are now £650 and £2,051.31.