BRITAIN’S “expensive, cramped and ageing” housing stock offers the worst value for money among advanced economies, a Resolution Foundation report said today.

Households are paying more than other countries but getting less in return, the think tank said, having analysed data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The foundation said that while there is “limited cross-national data” on floorspace, homes in England have less average floorspace per person than many similar countries, including the United States, Germany, France and Japan.

Britain’s housing stock is also relatively old, with 38 per cent of homes built before 1946, the report said, compared with around a fifth in Italy and one in nine in Spain.

Older homes can be poorly insulated, leading to higher energy bills and a higher risk of damp, they said.

Resolution Foundation principal economist Adam Corlett said: “Britain’s housing crisis is likely to be a big topic in the election campaign, as parties debate how to address the problems of high costs, poor quality and low security that face so many households.

“Britain is one of many countries apparently in the midst of a housing crisis, and it can be difficult to separate rhetoric from reality.

“But by looking at housing costs, floorspace and wider issues of quality, we find that the UK’s expensive, cramped and ageing housing stock offers the worst value for money of any advanced economy.

“Britain’s housing crisis is decades in the making, with successive governments failing to build enough new homes and modernise our existing stock. That now has to change.”

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said housebuilding is a government priority and remains on track to meet the manifesto commitment of delivering one million homes this Parliament.