Rents across the country have continued to climb and now average just over £1,110 per calendar month, Homelet has reported.

Its latest rental index puts the UK average rent 0.8 per cent up on the month, 0.9 per cent if London is excluded.

In Scotland increases averaged 3.3 per cent.

Rents outside the capital now average £936 per calendar months.

The index, which now includes data from both HomeLet and Let Alliance, draws on reports from over 5,000 UK letting agents of rents achieved for newly agreed tenancies.

‘The impacts of inflation, the war in Ukraine, energy price and other cost increases, are all combining to squeeze households up and down the country’, said Homelet head of business intelligence Rob Wishart.

‘This month’s rental figures also show a rise, and it is relatively easy to surmise that all of the issues above will lead to an increased number of tenants unable to pay their rent, which is a bad thing for everyone.

‘As we have mentioned many times in the Homelet Rental Index, there is a shortage of housing stock in this country, and this is a phenomenon that is only getting worse as many landlords are deciding that they would prefer to leave the market altogether. If we continue to see a decline in the number of landlords, tenants are likely to pay the price, as a shortage of supply will see an increase in demand, making further price rises inevitable.

‘A recent survey from Homelet has revealed that four out of five renters (78 per cent) are worried about how they will pay their rent, and in the same survey, landlords named renters’ ability to pay rent as their number one concern. It is easy to see where the problems lie, and it is hard to see how the Renter’s Reform Bill will help address the issue’.