The Strategic Society Centre wants the state to ban buy-to-let landlords from buying new-build property altogether, and would like to see the amount of total mortgage lending ascribed to buy-to-let restricted to 5%.

It said that, if demand outstripped supply of buy-to-let mortgages, lenders should offer more deals at premium rates, and use the extra profits generated to reduce the cost of mortgages for first-time buyers.

Buy-to-let currently accounts for around 12% of all mortgage lending.

Strategic Society Centre director James Lloyd said tenants were trapped in the private rental sector:

“The government should urgently bring forward plans for new home-building and shared-ownership schemes.

“But building new homes will never be enough for the government to help people’s aspiration for homeownership without new restrictions to ensure that new-build homes go to new home-owners.”

The report claims that the number of landlords in the UK has soared by 250% in the last 20 years, and that these people are notably more wealthy than the average UK citizen and live in bigger homes themselves.

It argued this meant any changes to the regulation of private letting that favoured tenants over landlords, such as rent controls, would not result in significant numbers of private landlords either leaving the private or struggling financially.

The government could also tax rental income and review the capital gains tax applied to second homes, it suggested.