The government has been urged to build more new towns to tackle a decline in home ownership.
David Willetts, a Conservative peer and former universities minister, told the Commons Treasury committee that failure to increase the supply of affordable homes was among reasons for rising levels of inequality between young and old.
He said the government could learn from the boom in state-backed housebuilding during the 1950s and 1960s, when developments sprung up across the UK in places such as Milton Keynes, Crawley and Warrington.
“The government bought land at agricultural prices, awarded themselves planning permission, built a town, made a profit on it, and put the money into the same project all over again,” he said.
“There is a lively debate on this now and I do think we need some initiative like that.”
