Private landlords are set to receive more than £70bn in housing support from the government over the next five years, according to fresh analysis by the New Economics Foundation (NEF).

The think tank found that the government will pay landlords in the PRS six times the expected spend on new affordable homes in the five-year period between 2021 and 2026 (£11.5bn).

The NEF based its analysis on the latest official statistics and the government’s announcement in the October budget that the local housing allowance (LHA) would be increased to help people on Universal Credit or Housing Benefit cope with rising private rents, which grew by 6.2% year on year in November.

This vital relief will help struggling families with the cost of living, but these new rates of support will once again be frozen from April, meaning more pain is locked in for low-income private renters.

And the increase means that even more public funds are being used to prop up a private rented sector, instead of investing in affordable social housing.

Alex Diner, senior researcher at NEF, said: “Everybody should have an affordable, warm and secure home to live in, yet the government is spending billions subsidising a broken system which too often fails to deliver this.

“It is extremely inefficient for the government to be paying this money to private landlords when it should be building more new genuinely affordable homes and improving the quality and security of tenure for the homes we already have.

“To overcome this mess, the government must build more social homes to meet the rising demand for affordable housing, reverse its U-turn to loosen energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector and improve its plans to regulate private renting.”

The analysis comes as recent polling by NEF shows how many tenants in the private rental sector are forced to endure rising rents, poor conditions and unacceptable treatment by landlords.

The polling shows:

+ Almost 40% of private tenants that moved within the last year are paying an average £1,200 a year above the advertised rate

+ Almost 40% of private tenants who have moved in the 12 months experience damp and mould in their property

+ More than 20% of these tenants have seen their landlords raise the rent mid-way through the tenancy without agreement

+ Almost 20% have reported concerns about the environmental standards of the property to their local council