Labour promised a mass house-building programme yesterday after a study revealed private-sector rents have risen twice as fast as wages over the last year.

Rent across England and Wales shot up to £753 a month on average as tenants were squeezed for an extra 1.6 per cent compared to last year.

But wages have been left standing at just £1,941 per month before tax after an increase of 0.8 per cent since last November.

LSL Property Services, which carried out the study of 20,000 homes, said the situation was made worse by a shortage of properties.

Director David Newnes said: "Building more homes at a serious pace is the only way to avoid stagnation in the housing market."

And shadow housing minister Emma Reynolds has pledged a Labour government would build 200,000 homes a year by 2020.

"The housing market isn't working because there simply aren't enough homes around for young people and families that want to buy but are forced to rent," she said.

"The Tory-led government has done next to nothing to increase housing supply and is presiding over the lowest levels of housebuilding in peacetime since the 1920s."

The housing crisis was worst in London, where rent has typically soared by 4.4 per cent over the last year to £1,153 a month.

Meanwhile the south-west of England saw the greatest month-on-month rises at 1.1 per cent and rent was also up by a bumper 2.4 per cent in Wales.

Heather Kennedy of Hackney renters group Digs said the rent rises had left buying a one-bedroom flat a "distant pipe dream."

She told the Star: "How are people on minimum wage supposed to be able to afford to pay their rent?

"Londoners are being made homeless, uprooted from their homes and communities and pushed into poverty all because the government have failed to address the housing crisis."

The latest insight into the crisis comes after charity Shelter found over 200,000 homes are at risk of repossession or eviction in England.