People will be able to donate their kidneys to strangers under new regulations announced today to increase the number of transplants in the UK.

Live donation is currently only permitted between people who are genetically or emotionally related.

But from September, "altruistic" transplants will be allowed from living donors unrelated to the patient, according to the Human Tissue Authority.

Paired and pooled transplants will also be introduced, allowing couples or families where one person needs a new kidney but the partner or relatives are incompatible to exchange organs with other compatible patients in a similar situation.

It is hoped that the new rules, introduced as part of the Human Tissue Act, will reduce the waiting lists for a kidney from a deceased donor. Doctors want to increase the number of transplants from living donors because they are more successful than those from deceased donors.

"The new legislation is set to increase the number of living kidney transplants by allowing altruistic and paired living kidney donations, which have the potential to save or improve the lives of many people in the UK," said the authority's chairwoman, Baroness Hayman.

Chris Rudge, the managing and transplant director of UK Transplant, the agency that matches and allocates donated organs, said there was a desperate shortage of donor organs in the country.

Last year 1,905 kidney transplants were performed in the UK, including 582 from live donors.

David Clark, 49, who needs a kidney transplant but cannot receive one from his wife Lindsey, 55, because their tissue types are incompatible, said the new regulations offered them hope.

"It brings hope to me and others who are in such desperate need of having a new kidney," he said.

"This and the possibility of altruistic stranger donation should help to address the shortage of organs available. Anything that can help must be a good thing."

Under the new scheme, altruistic and paired/pooled donation would have to be approved by a Human Tissue Authority panel, and donors and recipients would be subject to standard medical testing and compatibility.

Altruistic donors will receive psychiatric assessment and in all cases a representative for the authority would have to ensure that no financial incentive or coercion had been involved.

Anonymity and confidentiality would also be maintained.