Parents are not just helping their children get on to the housing ladder by buying them a home, but are now increasingly paying for their rents too.

Research by Legal & General has found that the so-called “bank of mum and dad” will fund £2.3bn of rental payments in 2017.

This is on top of the £6.5bn parents are forecast to pay out this year in ­deposits and mortgage repayments on behalf of their children.

The report, carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, has found that the bank of mum and dad is now financially helping 9pc of renters across the UK, on nearly 460,000 properties.