Image copyright PA Image caption Labour says there are 205,000 fewer homeowners than when David Cameron came to power in 2010

Many young people are being "exiled" from the neighbourhoods they grew up in because of a lack of affordable housing, a cabinet minister has warned.

Communities Secretary Greg Clark told council leaders it is a "defining test" for any government to provide homes to keep the "chain of community".

Harriet Harman told the conference the housing shortage is now "chronic".

Tory plans to make housing associations sell homes will make matters worse, the acting Labour leader said.

The four candidates vying to lead Labour - Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Jeremy Corbyn - are also speaking at the annual Local Government Association conference in Harrogate, setting out ideas on housing and decentralisation.

In his first major speech since joining the cabinet last month, Mr Clark signalled an ambitious agenda to hand powers to England's cities and regions, urging council leaders to "take power now" from Whitehall.

Devolving transport, skills and housing budgets to local authorities on a collective and individual basis will help unlock economic opportunities and create "a nation of muscular communities - north and south, town and country", he argued.

'Foreboding'

However, he acknowledged the scale of the challenge facing the country to ensure housing supply keeps pace with demand and the social dislocation caused by the lack of affordable properties to own or rent in many parts of the country.

"For centuries, to be exiled - to be sent away - was considered to be an extreme penalty, reserved for the most serious of offences against the community," Mr Clark said.

"Yet in many parts of our country it has become normal for young people to leave, though not out of choice. This might be to find work, but more-and-more, it is to find a home that they can afford.

"If we want to maintain the chain of community - and a place for the next generation - then we must make sure we have the homes to welcome them to. The responsibility lies with us - national and local leaders alike.

"It is a defining test of our generation of leaders that we care for and resolve the fears and foreboding of the next generation when it comes to that most basic of questions - 'Where and what will I call home?'"

A DCLG spokesman said policies such as Help to Buy and a plan to deliver 200,000 "starter homes" at a 20% discount for first-time buyers would help young people remain in their home areas.

The number of new houses completed in 2014 - 118,760 - was significantly higher than the year before but still way below its 2007 peak, before the banking crisis and subsequent recession.

'Ownership dream'

Ms Harman said Conservative plans, outlined in the party's manifesto, to require housing associations to sell properties to all of their 1.3 million tenants in England at a significant discount will "make the affordable housing crisis worse".

The scheme, an extension of the right-to-buy scheme for council house tenants promoted by the Thatcher government in the 1980s, will be partly funded by a requirement on local councils to sell off their most valuable properties when they become vacant.

Under the scheme, councils will be expected to replace disposed-of stock on a one-for-one basis, but the National Housing Federation has warned that since 2012, only 46% of homes sold off in this way have been replaced by new ones, reducing the overall number of properties for rent.

Ms Harman said ministers have failed to explain how the scheme will work and it risks accentuating already falling home ownership levels and the length of time people have to wait to get on the housing ladder.

"Ultimately, we'll see what the government brings forward, but the test for any housing policy must be whether it eases rather than deepens the housing crisis," she said.

"Proposals which don't address the key problem - the chronic shortage of homes - will see the dream of home ownership drift further and further out of reach."