It looks like housing benefit will rise far less than rents do in many areas.
It's only when you move out to places such as Thanet (£128 a week), Peterborough (£115) or Nottingham (£110) that rents start to become affordable.
The only recent cloud over the scene has been gentrification, which began under Mayor Rudy Giuliani and went into hyperdrive under Michael Bloomberg, forcing up rents beyond the grasp of most artists.
The rents get even more expensive when the streets are pedestrianised, meaning you end up with expensive boutiques that are of no use to ordinary people.
Most of these hotels are 50% vacant and the malls are empty – the rents are too expensive for the former souk stall-holders.
The idea that landlords should be restrained from shoving rents through the roof regardless of their tenants' ability to pay them invariably gets Tories screaming about red dictatorships and the end of the world.
More recently, a report from the centre-right think tank Civitas also argued for rents to be held to inflation levels and indefinite tenancies to be offered as the norm.
During an event at City Hall he said: "We are very sure that there is a favourable and a fair outcome for the tenants who, I agree, had the shock of seeing their rents potentially go up, and what I want to achieve is the sale of that estate to a social landlord".
Sources involved in negotiations over the future of the estate said that, while the likely deal gave hope that residents would be able to look forward to more secure tenancies and lower rents than if Westbrook had continued with its plans, the terms of the new tenancies are not yet known.
Rising rents have also boosted returns in recent years, to the consternation of the campaign group Generation Rent.
Low savings rates and rising property prices and rents have made buy-to-let attractive to consumers, while lenders have been fighting to offer the best deals.
