The average cost of renting a home in the West Midlands has risen to a new record of £592 a month.

It is the second consecutive month a new record has been set – albeit homes in the region are still significantly cheaper than the UK average.

Private sector rents jumped to a new record high of £816 a month across England and Wales in September, according Your Move and Reeds Rains, which compiled the report.

Experts said the hike means that tenants need to find around £48 a month more to pay their rent than they did a year ago.

Adrian Gill, director of Your Move and Reeds Rains, said: “Rents are rising strongly in real terms due to the recent acceleration in wages, and the much deeper and longer-term shortage of available properties across the UK.

“Meanwhile, as the price of everyday essentials plateaus and even falls, rents are no longer following the same broad trends. The cost of a place to live has now uncoupled from the cost of living.”

Rents also hit regional records in London, the South East, the South West and the East Midlands in September.

When compared with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation since the start of 2010, rents across the country have increased by more than 10 per cent in real terms over this period, the report said.

The findings follows figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this week, which showed that house prices have also reached a new record high in the West Midlands, £205,000 on average in August.

Mr Gill said that rents tend to be more likely to hit record peaks around this time of year.

He continued: “We are in the middle of the busiest time of year in the rental market. September and October are especially important given the student rental market in the autumn and the echoes of the academic year as those in their 20s start new jobs.”

Tenant arrears now represent 8.6 per cent of all rent due, as of September, the report said. This is an improvement after a set back in August took the figure to 9.9 per cent, although it is a deterioration compared with a year ago when 7.2 per cent of rent due was in arrears.

The report is based on rents achieved on around 20,000 properties across England and Wales.