The number of first-time buyers fell to the lowest level in a decade last year, with spiralling mortgage costs and a resilient housing market pricing out prospective buyers.
It comes as Michael Gove prepares to announce an overhaul of planning rules to help young people on to the property ladder.
In an attempt to kickstart the construction of more homes, the Housing Secretary will scrap the size and time limits on turning office blocks into homes for residential use and order failing councils to build more houses on brownfield land.
Mr Gove is also pushing for 1pc deposit mortgages to be part of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget on March 6, and has insisted the Government would ban no-fault evictions before the general election.
Mr Hunt is under pressure to cut stamp duty and introduce a “foreign ownership levy” to deter international investors from buying up residential property.
The move comes amid growing alarm at the slump in the Tory party’s support among young people and millennial parents, fuelled largely by the struggle to buy or rent affordable housing.
Polling figures at the weekend showed support for the Tories among voters aged 25 to 49 had slumped from 25pc when the party came to power in 2010 to 10pc now.
The Telegraph’s analysis, based on Nationwide and Office for National Statistics data, compared average London salaries of £43,628 in 2023 and £33,124 in 2003 to the average London property price for a first-time buyer in each year. The calculations assume no prior savings or financial help.
