CAMPAIGNERS have called for rent controls and more social housing to protect tenants, after surveyors warned rents are likely to rise sharply despite the cost-of-living crisis.

Sixty-three per cent of professionals expect rental prices to increase over the next three months, marking a fresh record high since records began in 1999, findings from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) indicate.

Generation Rent deputy chief executive Dan Wilson Craw warned that many tenants are being priced out of their homes and forced into the lettings market to compete for a new place to live.