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Rents in the UK are at their lowest level in seven years: according to new data, tenants spend almost 30 percent of their income on their homes.

According to figures from property data company PriceHubble released this week by the Office for National Statistics, rents for new lettings in July amounted to 28.8 percent of tenants’ gross income.

The statistics agency defines rent as “unaffordable” if it accounts for more than 30 percent of income. Rent as a share of wages rose by 2.2 percentage points last year to its highest level since at least 2017.

“This is proof, if you needed it, that we have a housing affordability problem in the UK,” said Sandra Jones, chief executive of PriceHubble, which collects data from the financial checks landlords carry out on new tenants.

The growing deterioration in housing affordability will increase pressure on the Labour government to tackle the crisis in the UK rental market, which is suffering from a lack of supply and record rent increases.

Average private rents in the UK rose 8.6 percent in the 12 months to July, the ONS said this week, unchanged from June and still close to the record 9.2 percent rise seen in March.

“Rents continue to rise faster than wages,” said Robert Wood, an economist at the consulting firm Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Wage growth slowed to a nearly two-year low of 5.4 percent in the three months to June, the ONS said on Tuesday.

Rent is becoming much more difficult for people on lower incomes and in some parts of the country to afford. According to the data, rents in London in July were 31.7 percent of income.

Jones cited “a number of explanations” for the pressure on the rental market, including regulatory changes, landlords selling properties and the desire for a spare bedroom to work from home.

Despite affordability issues, institutional investors remain “interested in providing rental housing on a large scale for all market segments,” she said.

In order not to discourage investment in new housing, among other things, the government has ruled out the introduction of rent controls to contain the crisis.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “This Government has no plans to devolve powers to control rents… The lack of supply is exacerbating the housing crisis.”

The government has promised to boost housing construction and enforce regulations to prevent bidding wars, end “unreasonable” rent increases for existing tenants and stop “no-fault evictions” under Section 21 – a measure promised by the last Conservative government.

Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has repeatedly called on the government to give him the power to impose rent controls in the capital, where rents have already exceeded the official affordability limit.

A paper published this week by the free-market think tank Institute of Economic Affairs says the negative consequences of rent control outweigh the benefits for tenants.

“The finding that rent controls reduce the supply and quality of rental housing, reduce housing construction, restrict the mobility of private renters and lead to a misallocation of the existing rental housing stock is as close to a consensus as is realistically possible in economic research,” said Kristian Niemietz, IEA editorial director.

Ben Twomey, chief executive of campaign group Generation Rent, said a “fair and sensible approach” would “prevent rents from rising faster than our wages or inflation”.