Millions of homes are missing from the UK’s housing market as a result of the country’s inefficient and outdated planning laws, a new report by has found.

In the report, Centre for Cities highlights how these laws have seen UK housebuilding rates drop significantly below European averages over the last 70 years, creating a backlog of at least 4.3 million homes that could have been built since the 1950s.

The report goes on to state that this housing deficit would take at least half a century to fill even if the government’s current target to build 300,000 homes a year is reached. Tackling the problem sooner would require 442,000 homes per year over the next 25 years or 654,000 per year over the next decade in England alone.

Over the last 70 years, the UK has seen a massive drop in its housing availability in comparison to most other European countries. While the number of dwellings per person in Britain was 5 per cent above the European average in 1955, figures from 2015 show it has since plummeted to at least 8 per cent below the average.

Housebuilding rates in England and Wales have dropped by more than a third after the introduction of the Town and Country Planning Act 1947, from 2 per cent growth per year between 1856 and 1939 to 1.2 per cent between 1947 and 2019.

Centre for Cities chief executive Andrew Carter said: “This research shows that UK planning policy has held back the economy for nearly three quarters of a century, stifling growth and exacerbating a housing crisis that has blighted the country for decades.

“Big problems require big solutions and if the government is to clear its backlog of unbuilt homes, it must first deliver planning reform. Failure to do this will only continue to limit England’s housebuilding potential and prevent millions from getting on the property ladder.”