Rents on new tenancies grew faster in May on a yearly basis, HomeLet claims.

The tenant referencing provider’s Rental Index found that new rents were up 2% annually in May to £919 a month across the UK.

This was an increase on the 1.5% growth recorded in April, and pushes rents on new tenancies closer to the 2.4% inflation figure.

However, monthly growth slowed from 0.7% to 0.2% between April and May, meaning new rents actually only increased by £1.

When London is excluded, the average rent on a new tenancy in the UK is now £763 a month, up by 1.3% on last year.

London had the largest annual regional increases, up 5.6% to £1,586, while the North-East had the highest monthly change in new tenancies, up 1.9% to £533 a month.