Rent inflation continued to climb last month up by 0.1% to 4.7%, the Government’s latest data for England shows.

The Official for National Statistics (ONS) reports the annual increase, which compares the 12 months to the end of April 2023 to the previous month’s rent data.

“The rapid growth within UK rental prices shows no sign of abating with another annual inflation rise in April. London and Yorkshire and The Humber showed the highest annual rates in England this month, with London experiencing the highest annual percentage increase in over a decade,” says Aimee North, ONS Head of Housing Market Indices.

Her rental index shows that while rents increased by 4.7% in England, rents increased by 4.8% in Wales and 5.2% in Scotland.

Within England, the highest annual percentage change in private rental prices in the 12 months to April 2023 was in London and Yorkshire and The Humber, at 5.0%, while the North East saw the lowest (4.2%).

London's annual percentage change in private rental prices was 5.0% in the 12 months to April 2023, above the England average and its highest annual rate since November 2012.

Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank says: “Rents continue to rise sharply as a supply shortage makes life difficult for a growing number of tenants.

“Politicians have targeted landlords with a series of tax hikes in recent years and as more of them leave the sector, fast-rising rents means the pain has spread to tenants.

“More details were announced last week on the government’s Renters (Reform) Bill, which needs to make sure it doesn’t make a bad situation worse. Around a fifth of households in England are renting, which is a lot of voters.”

Read the index in full.