Continued long-term investment in housing is crucial to keeping people in work and retaining essential skills in the building sector, according to the head of programme for the UK housing policy and practice at the Building and Social Housing Foundation.

Jim Vine added that both of these factors are essential in an economic downturn.

He was responding to figures from the National Housing Federation, which reveal the number of London households on social housing waiting lists increased by 1,259 to 354,389 annually in April 1st 2009.

According to the federation, a record 1.97 million households are forecast to be on waiting lists by next year, twice as high as a decade earlier.

Mr Vine added: "These figures demonstrate the need for continued investment in housing. Housing should be prioritised as a spending area."

Meanwhile, new figures from the English Housing Survey released by Communities and Local Government show the number of owner occupied households fell from 14.8 million in 2005 and 2006 to 14.6 million in 2008 - 2009.