Millions of private renters disagree with housing campaigners about the state of their buy to let homes.

The lobby groups and housing charities claim rogue landlords take advantage of their tenants, but the latest government survey shows 84% of private tenants are satisfied with their homes and 68% have no concerns about renting.

Repairs are not a concern for 72% of private renters who said their landlords carried them out satisfactorily, although 17% were dissatisfied.

The study also highlights that more people privately rent a home than at any time in the past 20 years, with 4.7 million households in buy to let accommodation.

During that time, the number of renters across all age groups has increased – except for those over 75 years old. The largest age group renting a private home are 25 to 34-year olds, making up a third of all renters.

The English Housing Survey for 2016-17 shows 149,000 households moved into private rented accommodation for the first time, while 266,000 moved out.

In total 860,000 renters started a new tenancy, including first time renters, in the survey period.

And on average, these tenants spent just over a third of their household income (34%) on renting a private home.

Private renters were also less likely to struggle financially than those renting social housing.

While 9% of private tenants were in arrears at some time during the year, this compared well with the 25% of social tenants who did not pay their rent.

The quality of private rented homes is improving as well, the study noted.

Although 27% of properties did not pass the government’s Decent Homes Standard, this has improved from 47% in 2006. The report also notes more private rented homes are more energy efficient than at any time in the past two decades.

The survey is published by the Office of National Statistics.