Thousands of people have seen their paycheques stretched even further after rents increased to an unprecedented high in the last year, new figures revealed today.

Private-sector rents have reached an average high of £761 a month across England and Wales — a 2.4 per cent increase on 2013.

The raises are contributing to worsening problems for tenants — with one in every 13 people now unable to pay their rents on time or at all. 

This follows an above-inflation increase in rent prices recorded this July.

Shelter’s chief executive Campbell Robb said: “We hear from people every day who can barely keep up with their housing costs each month, making saving for a home of their own a mere pipe dream.”

“And sky-high rents mean hopes of escaping the ‘rent trap’ are fading fast for many.”

The highest spike in rent costs was noticed in the south-west, where prices toppled the £650 mark with a 3.5 per cent year-on-year rise.

However the south-east, boosted in great part by the London housing bubble, saw average rents reach almost £800 a month.

Both regions also suffered from the heaviest monthly increase of around 1.7 per cent. 

Tenants’ groups nationwide have been warning of the impending risks of ever-growing housing costs.

“These increases in rent, which tenants have no choice but to accept due to the lack of alternatives to the private rented sector, show that it is essential that rent controls be introduced,” said Southwark Tenants member Thomas Gann. 

He added that investing in more social housing and creating these rent caps woud be essential “to allow people to leave the fundamentally exploitative private rented sector.”

Mr Robb echoed the sentiment suggesting that “successive governments’ failure to build enough affordable homes and soaring house prices are leaving more and more families with no choice but to live their lives in expensive and unstable rented homes, never certain of what the future holds.

“Our politicians have got to get serious about building the affordable homes we urgently need and give ‘generation rent’ the chance of a stable home.”