Tenants in the West Midlands shelling out £660 a month in rent

The amount tenants pay per month has increased from an average of £644 in April 2015 to £659 in April this year.

This increase may mean that more people will be struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living increases year on year.

According to a report published by agency HomeLet, there are now more renters in the UK than ever before, meaning the cost to rent a property has increased, with rises set to continue.

The report comes just a few weeks after the Government introduced a three percentage point Stamp Duty surcharge on all purchases of residential property purchases made by someone not buying their main home.

Further data from the council of mortgage lenders suggests there was a spike in property transactions during March this year, as buyers such as buy-to-let landlords rushed to beat the Stamp Duty increase.

London's rental market, where the average rent on a new tenancy is now £1,543, also continues to see rents rise more quickly than in most other areas of the country.

The 2.6 percentage point gap between rent rises on new tenancies in London and the rest of the UK, where rents average £764, is barely changed on last month (2.8 percentage points).

Martin Totty, chief executive of Barbon insurance group said: "There has been very little to alter the fundamental relationship between demand and supply of homes, especially in those parts of the country where demand-side pressure is greatest.

"For now though it's business as usual, which may be better news for landlords than for tenants, though landlords will no doubt be feeling the squeeze too given the various taxation changes they now need to budget for.

"We will have to see whether landlords try to pass their higher costs on, whether buy-to-let property investment diminishes in popularity and whether tenants are able to afford further increases in rents."

The figures do show that rents agreed on new tenancies across the UK over the three months to the end of April have continued to grow at a consistent rate.

The news comes as work has started on a housing development at a former industrial site in Penkridge which will see at least 330 homes built.

Persimmon Homes, the developers of the project, has so far sold 16 homes from the proposed plans.