These are the best and worst cities for renters in the UK

The best and worst cities to live in if you rent your home have been ranked by property specialists, Insulation Express.

With house prices increasingly on the rise, many brits are renting rather than buying - a group that experts have labelled ‘Generation Rent’.

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The new study found that Plymouth is the most renter-friendly city in the country, while Luton is the least welcoming for renters.

The study ranked each the 30 most populous British cities, taking several factors into account:

The proportion of salary spent on rent by residentsThe rate of tenant evictionsAnnual rent increasesThe supply private rented propertiesThe unemployment rateThe crime rate

The best city for renters in the UK

Plymouth came top in the Insulation Express analysis, which found that renters spend less than a third (32 per cent) of their income on rent. That’s half of what London pays, and a third less than Reading.

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What’s more, the unemployment rate is the lowest in the top 10 cities - at just two per cent - and the crime rate is the smallest of all the 30 cities analysed.

In Plymouth, there are 59 recorded crimes per 1,000 of the population, which is 38 per cent lower than the national average (95 per 1,000 people).

The least renter-friendly city

Insulation Express’s data showed that Luton is the UK’s worst city for renters, and has the highest amount of evictions out of the 30 cities analysed – racking up 22 evictions per 1,000 private rented properties.

Luton’s tenants spend 41 per cent of their wages on their rent, and renting fees there have increased substantially over the last year.

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By comparison, Newcastle and Sunderland have the lowest annual rent rises in the UK, at 0.5 per cent.

The top 5 most affordable cities for renters

Insulation Express also uncovered which cities spent the least amount of their salary on rent.The cities are:

Derby - 22.0 per cent of salary is spent on rentSunderland - 23.0 per cent of salary is spent on rentStoke-on-Trent - 23.2 per cent of salary is spent on rentNewport - 23.3 per cent of salary is spent on rentHull - 24.1 per cent of salary is spent on rent

According to the findings, Derby is the most affordable city for renters overall. Tenants there spend less than a quarter of their salary on rent.

Sunderland, takes second place for the cheapest city for renting, where just 23 per cent of renters’ salaries is spent on rent.