PUBLIC-SECTOR recruitment crises are worse in London due to soaring housing costs and below-average pay rises, a City Hall report has shown.

Nurses, police and teachers in the capital are facing unbearable pressure as they spend a much higher proportion of their earnings on rent compared with those in other regions.

The report found a typical entry-level copper would spend more than half their £37,000 starting gross salary on rent in the London borough of Greenwich, while one in West Suffolk would need only 38 per cent.

The same constable would face 3.5 times higher mortgage costs if they bought a one-bedroom apartment in Greenwich on a five-year fixed mortgage rate of 2 per cent back in 2018 compared like-for-like with one in West Suffolk. 

Public-sector pay has risen less in the capital than other regions as well, up by 14.9 per cent since 2016 compared with the UK average of 15.5 per cent and 17.4 per cent for London’s private sector, according to the City Hall data.

With average London rents predicted to soar to up to £2,700 a month next year, public-sector recruitment there has lagged behind most regions, with employee headcount growing in London by 6.2 per cent, versus 6.9 per cent in the UK and 6.7 per cent in England.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has urged the government to provide £4.9 billion a year “required to deliver the genuinely affordable housing the capital needs.”

TUC regional secretary for London Sam Gurney said: “It is not right that our key workers are being priced out of the capital and forced to find homes and jobs elsewhere. 

“In the middle of a recruitment and retention crisis in essential services like education, health and social care, London can’t afford to lose any more skilled and experienced staff.

“Everyone deserves a decent standard of living and access to decent affordable housing. The mayor is right to highlight this urgent problem.”

Unison London regional secretary Jo Galloway said: “With house prices and rent costs higher in London than anywhere else in the UK, public-service workers are feeling unbearable pressure.

“Public-sector pay simply isn’t rising enough to keep up with the cost of living, with many workers forced to leave London to find cheaper housing options, unable to live in the communities that they serve.”