Britain is set to suffer its worst decade for housebuilding since the Second World War, according to research published by a think tank.

The Centre for Policy Studies has urged ministers to “take bold action” to address the paucity of new housing which it said is “blighting the lives of a generation”.

The think tank said housebuilding figures for England during the 2010s are on course to come in lower than in any decade since the 1940s.

It blamed the lack of new housing on a “50-year pattern” which has seen successive governments failing to build enough new homes.

Each decade since the 1960s has seen fewer new homes built than the last.

The think tank’s research showed new-build housing completions in England between 2010 and 2019 are set to be approximately 130,000 per year.