'I couldn't afford rent in London as a nurse so I commuted from Wales while pregnant'

Nurses priced out of London

A nurse has said she was effectively pushed out of London by high rents, forcing her to commute from rural Wales to a central London A&E department while pregnant.

Georgie Scott, 35, said she and her partner decided to leave the capital after she was evicted from her flat during the Covid pandemic and found they could no longer afford to rent there. As the household’s main earner, she said spending two-thirds of her salary on housing was not sustainable.

"On a nurse's wage in London, it was not viable," she said. After comparing areas, the couple moved to Wales, where rents were, in her words, less than half of what they had been paying in London for larger properties.

Long commutes and rising costs

Scott said her employer supported her with a flexible schedule so she could travel back and forth, but the arrangement was difficult. She described A&E work as hard enough on its own, adding that planning the commute was demanding and train fares were expensive.

She said it was "a bit of a kick in the teeth" to have to leave her home city because of housing costs. In her view, raising a family on a nurse’s salary in London is now impossible, with childcare expenses and rent together outstripping wages. She said many colleagues had also moved out of the capital, including to Essex and Kent.

Data from NHS England suggests the issue has worsened. In 2025-26, 24% of nurses in London who voluntarily resigned cited relocation as the reason, up from 11% in 2011-12. The Royal College of Nursing said the cost of housing was a significant factor.

Pay failing to keep up with rent

The RCN’s London director, Lisa Elliott, described the situation as worsening. According to union analysis, entry-level pay for nurses rose by an average of 2.83% a year between 2015 and 2025, while London rents increased by 3.53% annually over the same period.

"Nurses are having to fork out much more of their salary on just being able to afford the rent," Elliott said. She warned that if London cannot retain enough nurses, patient care will be affected.

Nurses and midwives in England and Wales are due a 3.3% pay rise in the next financial year, but Elliott said the union was disappointed because the award was below inflation.

Other nurses facing the same pressure

Alicia Arias, 41, an intensive care paediatrics nurse, said she faced similar pressures. She travels daily from Woking to a central London hospital, with the journey taking an hour on a good day and up to three hours when conditions are bad. To avoid extra transport costs, she cycles to and from the Overground.

In 2018, Arias spent a year in key worker accommodation, which she said was not easy to access and often found only through word of mouth. She initially paid £895 a month for a studio flat in Camden, which she considered affordable. During Covid, she said the rent was frozen for a year, but by the time she left after five years, it had risen to £1,150.

Arias said the accommodation eventually became more expensive than similar private rentals she found, while her salary did not keep pace. She said she is now considering leaving nursing, along with many of her colleagues, because of high rents, low pay and burnout since Covid.

Push for key worker housing

City Hall says it plans to start at least 6,000 rent-controlled "Key Worker Living Rent" homes in London by 2030. The homes would be let at rents based on 40% of key workers’ average net household incomes, which City Hall says could save those in a two-bedroom home about £7,000 a year on average.

Deputy Mayor for Housing Tom Copley said many of the workers London depends on struggle to afford market rents but do not qualify for social housing. He said the new rents would vary by borough and aim to balance affordability with deliverability.

Copley acknowledged broader pressures on housebuilding, saying London had been hit by economic headwinds including Brexit, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, regulatory delays and rising interest rates. Despite that, he said he was confident homes for key workers could still be delivered.

Looking beyond London

The government said it had delivered major NHS pay rises and was building 1.5 million new homes, with a major increase in affordable and social housing backed by £39bn.

For Scott, however, the current arrangement is reaching its limit. She said that although she remains committed to her work in London, commuting with a young child is unsustainable and she is now looking for jobs in Wales.

"As much as I love London, it will be too hard," she said.