Annual housing supply in England amounted to 216,490 additional dwellings in 2020-21, according to figures from the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities.

The figures was down 11 per cent on 2019-20.

The vast majority of additional dwellings were from newly built homes, accounting for 194,060 of the total. The rest were mainly from change of use from between non-domestic and residential as well as conversions.

Imran Hussain, director at Nottingham-based Harmony Financial Services, said: “Not enough houses are being built, full stop. The lack of new homes under construction is a failure of countless Governments.

“Even when new properties are being built, we are not building enough affordable homes, which creates liquidity all the way up through the property market. Without all-important first-time buyers being able to buy new, affordable homes, the whole market is straitjacketed. It all starts from the bottom.”

Robert Payne, co-founder of Bristol-based Langley House Mortgages, added: “Property is unlikely to ever lack demand and the size of the population is unlikely to ever shrink to a point where there is a surplus of supply, so this makes building enough homes a near impossible task. It seems everywhere I look there are new homes being built so there is certainly a conscious effort being made but when you look at the raw statistics, much more needs to be done.”