Tax rises targeting landlords in an effort to help first time buyers are “profoundly wrongheaded” and in fact push up costs for tenants, David Miles has warned.

Worries over the cost of housing have encouraged politicians to look for ways to show they are on the side of would-be homebuyers, but the former Bank of England policymaker said that the policies will backfire.

“One response, and in some ways it has been perhaps the most significant housing policy response in recent years, is to point one’s finger at the rental sector and say, well it is kind of their fault,” said Mr Miles, who is now a professor of financial economics at Imperial College London.

“My own view is that this is profoundly wrongheaded.”