There has been a sharp rise in the number of tenancy deposits held across the UK, new figures provided by deposit protection outfit The Dispute Service (TDS) shows.

The annual review provided by the TDS reveals 6.8% growth in deposits held nationwide, with Northern Ireland in particular seeing a 13.85% surge.

The TDS, which operates Tenancy Deposit Scheme in England and Wales, TDS Northern Ireland, and is a key partner with SafeDeposits Scotland, also reports that Scotland saw 8% growth in deposits year-on-year, while in England and Wales there was a 6.52% jump.

In total, the number of tenancy deposits protected by the not-for-profit organisation grew from 1,386,572 in March 2017 to 1,481,485 in March 2018 across the UK.

Steve Harriott, group CEO of TDS, said: “The growth we have experienced is due to both the increasing size of the private rented sector and the quality of the service we provide to our customers.

“Over the last year, we’ve invested significantly in our people, products and customer service. We’re consistently meeting government targets for call and email answering times across the UK, and were awarded the Customer Service Excellence accreditation earlier this year.

“There’s a lot of interest in the private rented sector and particularly in tenancy deposit protection. The sector continues to grow but there is very little in the way of published data on tenancy deposit protection.”