A co-founder of property rentals website Airbnb has hit back at claims that it is fuelling a housing crisis in London.

The website, which allows home owners, landlords and tenants to rent out rooms or whole properties, has been blamed for a rise in short-term lets, hitting the availability of long-term rentals and ultimately homes to buy.

But Nathan Blecharczyk, who helped start the company in 2008, told the Evening Standard that the business was actually “part of the solution”.

He said: “The thing people seem most anxious about now is the increase in rents in so many cities. I actually think Airbnb is part of the solution.

“Airbnb can make it more affordable to have an apartment in London by making sure it’s fully utilised, whether renting your extra bedroom, or when you’re away on a trip and getting extra bucks to subsidise your rent.

“People are stressed out about the rising cost of housing, but to solve that, that’s a much bigger issue.

“I think, in London’s case, there needs to be created roughly 100,000 units per year to keep pace with demand, so that’s many orders of magnitude larger than anything Airbnb-related. I think Airbnb can help people with rising rents.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has previously asked MPs to look at legislation to clamp down on short-term lets in the capital, an issue Airbnb says it may oppose with legal action.