A “rentquake” has hit Wycombe, a charity has warned - leaving tenants unable to cope with soaring rents while average wages have remained the same.

New figures for the Wycombe district show that private rents have risen by 30 per cent since 2011, far above average wages which have fallen by one per cent.

This makes Wycombe among the 20 local authorities which have seen renting affordability worsen the most in recent years.

Shelter has warned that with increasing numbers of people renting, more and more tenants are unable to afford soaring rents.

In Wycombe, the average rental cost of a two-bedroom home increased 29.7 per cent between 2011 and 2017.

Meanwhile, the average household income fell by 0.9 per cent.

In the 2017-18 financial year, the average monthly rent of a two-bedroom home in Wycombe cost £1,029.

Rents rose by 17 per cent across the south east of England and average wages only eight per cent.

The crisis is spreading out of London to cities like Cambridge and Birmingham along with other middle England market towns like Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks where rents have risen significantly faster than wages.

Shelter is blaming consecutive governments who have “failed” to build enough affordable homes to rent to keep up with the surge in renters across the country.

The charity is calling on the government to come up with a new plan for social housing so people on low income jobs can find somewhere affordable to rent, rather than overloading the private rented sector.

In addition, they want to improve the private rented sector by making sure the government’s new three year tenancies deal for renters is backed up by law and not light touch incentives.

Greg Beales, campaign director at Shelter, said: “With this surge in private renters the housing market has shifted massively across the country and in places like Wycombe, and yet as a country we’ve failed to respond.

“This has resulted in consecutive governments focusing on better-off home owners whilst not doing enough for hard pressed renters.

“We need politicians of all parties to sit up and take notice of the rising numbers of renters, and ensure they’re doing all they can to protect them.”

The situation was most pronounced in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, where rental prices increased by 42 per cent. The average salary, meanwhile, was up by just two per cent.

Rental prices have become a more significant concern in recent years, as the number of households renting from private owners has risen by 74 per cent in the last decade.

Of the estimated 23.1 million households in England in 2016-17, the private rented sector accounted for 4.7 million, or 20 per cent, of households.