Deposit protection provider The Dispute Service says it has seen a big rise in the number of deposits it protects in the last financial year.

A statement from TDS says that in the 12 months to the end of March this year there was a 6.8 per cent rise on average across the UK, with Northern Ireland in particular seeing a 13.85 per cent surge. 

TDS operates tenancy deposit protection schemes in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

Sister company, SafeDeposits Scotland followed suit, generating an 8.0 per cent rise in the number of tenancy deposits protected. In England and Wales, The Dispute Service trades as Tenancy Deposit Scheme grew 6.52 per cent over the year.

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 The Dispute Service, says: “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.”