Tenants should be protected from escalating rents by caps, similar to caps to energy and water bills.
That is according to campaign group Generation Rent, which responded to Q2 statistics from Rightmove, which found that the average monthly rent that a new tenant faces paying is over £400 (£417) more than in 2020.
Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “Everyone needs a safe, secure and affordable home. But renters are struggling to stay in our homes as prices soar well beyond our wages.
“Landlords often blame rising rents on demand being higher than the number of homes available, but it is now clear that high rents are here to stay, even as the number of renters looking for homes is falling.
“When so much of our income is swallowed up by landlords, it can mean that we can’t afford to heat our homes for the winter or feed ourselves properly. Some renters are staring down the barrel of debt and homelessness.
“The government can and must act urgently. We rightly have caps on essentials like energy and water bills, but we desperately need the same protection from the soaring rents that are pricing us out of our homes.”
The number of properties for tenants to choose from is 15% higher than a year earlier, but remains 29% below the level seen in 2019, just before the UK coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.
The UK energy price cap currently stands at £1,720 per year.
Colleen Babcock, Rightmove’s property expert, said: “Despite another new record in average asking rents for tenants, the big picture is that yearly rent increases continue to slow, which is good news for tenants.
“Supply and demand is slowly rebalancing towards more normal levels, though we still have a way to go before we reach pre-2020 levels of available homes for tenants.
“The good news is that the latest industry snapshot suggests more investors are taking out buy-to-let loans compared with last year, which should help to bring even more homes to the rental market.”