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 Fewer new-build properties are being built now than at any time since 1945, according to new figures from the Construction Products Association (CPA).
The organisation suggests that there have been just 147,000 housing starts in Great Britain during 2008, representing a 27 per cent fall from the equivalent period last year.
In addition, the CPA predicts that private sector starts are set to fall by 30 per cent to a 16-year low, while the government's target of 45,000 new social houses by 2011 is also a distant one.
Michael Ankers, chief executive of the CPA, said: "The impact on the new-build housing market has been more severe than any of us anticipated.
"To be starting fewer new homes than at any time over the last 60 years illustrates the scale of the problem we now face.
"Unless something is done urgently to address this problem, the capacity in the industry will be cut to a level which will take a long time to build up and it will not be able to meet the inevitable pent up demand for new housing."
The research is backed up by a recent survey from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), which found that new-build starts were down dramatically during April.
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