The housing associations body argued the current housing crisis could be explained in part by a baby boom in the 1980s coupled with a 14% decrease in new homes built in the 1990s.

It stated: “England experienced a further baby boom with 6.9m live births between 2001 and 2011.

“In 2020, the first children from this boom will be turning into ambitious young men and women, looking to move out, find work and kick-start their adult lives. This will put a massive strain on an already beleaguered English housing market.

“We’re in danger of not learning from past mistakes. We failed to fix the housing market for the eighties baby-boomers, and the consequences for children of the new millennium are set to be even more dire.”

Between 2001 and 2011 the number of live births in England and Wales increased by more than a fifth.

However, the number of new properties built between 2011 and 2012 was 15% lower than a decade earlier.

The impact of this lack of supply, the National Housing Federation estimated, was that by 2020 the price of a first-time buyer’s home would increase by 42% and rents would be 46% higher than today.