CAMPAIGNERS have called on the government to introduce protection from unaffordable rent rises after data revealed yesterday that private rents soared by £100 on average over the past year.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that from August, the average rent across Britain had risen by 8.4 per cent to £1,286 per month over the previous 12 months.

London saw the fastest increase in rents, rising by 9.6 per cent in August, while the south-west of England saw prices climb the slowest at 6.4 per cent. 

Rent inflation across the country was predictably found to be growing faster than wage growth which stood at 5.1 per cent in the three months to July. 

It comes as ONS announced that CPI inflation,  which calculates the changes in the cost of a basket of goods and services, has remained unchanged at 2.2 per cent. 

Generation Rent chief executive Ben Twomey said: “Prices in the shops may have stopped rising so quickly, but renters are still seeing our single biggest cost go up faster than our incomes. 

“This isn’t news to renters, who have been feeling this squeeze for a very long time as our landlords snatch away more and more of our wages.”

The government published the Renters’ Rights Bill last week, which will seek to abolish no-fault evictions and require landlords to give at least two months’ notice before raising rents. 

But while Mr Twomey said the Bill “offers many positives” for tenants, “the cost of renting crisis will rage on unless Westminster slams the brakes on these runaway rents.”

He said that the legislation “must contain protection from these unaffordable rent rises, which should mean preventing rent rises going above wage growth or inflation — whichever is lower.”