There is a 'shortage' of housing in the long term

More people could turn to self build after one expert has claimed that the UK is facing a housing shortage.

David Bates, business development manager of property developer dandara, claims that in the long term there will be a "huge, critical shortage" of housing.

Mr Bates says that four years ago a Treasury commission report by Kate Barker said the country needed to build 240,000 new homes a year.

"This year we look set to complete on less than 90,000 and there was only 170,000 new homes completed last year," he explained.

The expert says that there is no increase in greenfield land to build on and brownfield sites for urban regeneration are becoming scarcer.

There were 23,185 applications to build homes in the private and public sectors in the three months leading up to the end of September. This figure is 54 per cent down on the same period of last year, according to the National House Building Council.