Londoners choose to live on boats over soaring housing costs
Skyrocketing housing costs in the British capital have forced many Londoners to choose alternative cheaper accommodation on boats.
Private rents in London have risen to cost about half the average salary; therefore, some tenants have turned to inexpensive rooms on boats described by many as “floating shacks.”
In every working day in the past year, one boat entered London waterways, according to the Canal and River Trust (CRT), which looks after the waterways of England and Wales.
“More people are moving onto boats, popularity is going through the roof,” CRT spokesman Joe Coggins said.
Education worker Jim Bryden, who has lived aboard a boat for two years, said, “It’s become more common for people to do it who don’t know what they are getting into, or even because they have no choice.”
“I’ve met people who have ended up on a boat because they had two weeks’ notice to leave their flat and were able to buy a boat for £10,000 ($16,000),” Bryden added.
The increasing number of boaters, however, has put pressure on the city’s historic network of rivers and canals.
Boaters must either obey the regulations or accept that they should leave the waterways, Coggins argued.
“Rather than looking at it as a cheap housing option we want people to see it as a lifestyle,” he said.
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