HUNDREDS of tenants are set to protest in London on one of the busiest shopping days of the year to draw attention to the human cost of rising rents.

The protest, organised by the London Renters Union (LRU) will kick off at 11.30am in Cavendish Square Gardens on Saturday. 

Average rents in the capital have soared to an average of £2,172 a month, outstripping the pre-tax monthly earnings of £1,939 of someone on the London Living Wage working 35 hours a week.

Official data shows that over a third of private renters were in poverty after housing costs in 2022-23.

Campaigners are calling on the government to reintroduce rent controls in Britain, which were repealed under former Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1988, and for long-term investment in building and buying back public housing.

Labour has pledged to build 1.5 million homes using private contractors, which it says will improve affordability. 

But an analysis by Generation Rent estimates that an extra 20 homes per 1,000 people would only improve affordability by 2.8 per cent of average incomes.

Ahead of the protest, LRU spokesperson Elyem Chej said: “We are sick and tired of seeing our city carved up by the rich and powerful. 

“It is disgraceful that ordinary people have to uproot their lives because a landlord or a developer thinks they can get more money. 

“Home is the centre of our lives and our communities.

“Something so foundational to our city cannot be left to unaccountable landlords seeking ever higher profits.”