Citizens Advice has revealed that 39% of people living with their children in privately rented homes have a tenancy of six months or less.

The charity’s research found that 34% of private renters would like their tenancy to be longer, increasing to 39% among those with children. This amounts to almost 1.5 million households in England who need more security that they’ll be able to keep living in their own home.

There has been a large increase in the number of people bringing up children in privately rented accommodation over the past few years, with families making up almost four in 10 private rented households. But the private rented sector has many pitfalls – last year nearly 75,000 people in England turned to Citizens Advice for help with a problem relating to a privately rented home including repairs and maintenance, problems with letting agencies and evictions.

Based on a YouGov survey of over 2,000 private renting adults in England the research shows many families are feeling insecure in their home. Of private renters with children living with them, 59% said knowing they may be asked to move out at short notice made it difficult to plan for the future.

35% thought that if they were asked to leave their property their current notice period would not give them enough time to find somewhere else to live, while 46% said they would prefer not to move between properties as often as they do.

In addition, 79% of private renters with children have experienced problems with the quality of their home including rodent infestations, broken heating, and no hot water. 52% had experienced problems with damp or mould, 28% had windows or doors which didn’t lock properly and 20% had faulty wiring.

While in many of these cases the landlord addressed the problems within month, in over a quarter of instances (27%) the problem took longer than this to resolve. And where these renters had spent their own time or money fixing a problem, 50% were not refunded for this by their landlord.

“The challenges of living in the private rented sector can be even more acute for people with children,” said Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice.

“Families are living under a cloud of uncertainty – not knowing when they might need to leave their home. This can make planning for the future, such as where your child can go to school, a real struggle. Many families who are now enjoying the Christmas break may have to move out of their home before the summer holidays start.”

Guy added: “With home ownership on the decline the private rented sector in England is in need of a major overhaul. While there are signs of progress – such as the ban letting agent fees – action is needed to improve security of tenure for private tenants as well as the quality of private rented homes.”