Tenants are having to spend two-fifths of their incomes on rent, a government report revealed yesterday.

According to this year’s English Housing Survey, private renters in England are spending 40 per cent of their salaries to keep a roof over their heads. 

Tenants rights campaign Generation Rent director Alex Hilton said: “Renters spend two days every week working to pay off their landlord’s mortgage.”

The group denounced the current state of affairs as “exploitation” and a ”financial thumbscrew” for millions of people who are stuck without alternatives.

“This underlines the urgency of the need for affordable housebuilding and tenancy law reform,” Mr Hilton added.  The survey also showed that between 2012 and 2013 privately rented accommodation exceeded the social rented sector for the first time in almost 60 years.

With young people unable to access mortgages the number of those under the age of 35 living in privately rented premises has grown by 14 per cent in the last 12 months alone. 

Earlier this year Labour leader Ed Miliband promised to introduce caps to private sector rents setting an “upper limit” to how much landlords can raise the value of their properties. 

Renters group Southwark Tenants member Tom Gann told the Star it was  “imperative” to control rents  — but there was also a need to increase the availabilty of social housing.

In a survey conducted by Southwark Tenants, many admitted fears of being “priced out of the area we have come to know once our contract runs out.”

Some suggested the worst was not knowing if they could afford to stay in the same home from one year to the next.

Some of those surveyed said they could foresee “giving a lot of money to another person (probably for the rest of my life) simply because they could afford a house at some point.” 

“If I lose my job I will not be able to rent a private house. I am doubtful there would be enough council homes available if this happens,” the south Londoner said.