David Cameron’s “rabbit out of a hat” pledge to double the number of new homes built under his Help to Buy scheme smacks of panic.

He was so petrified at the thought of his target for subsidised new private homes being outflanked by Labour that he has abandoned the 100,000 figure he announced at Tory Party conference in favour of 200,000.

Cameron proclaims that Britain is building again, but his government’s record is abysmal, with the lowest peacetime level of housebuilding since the 1920s.

The average deposit required to buy a home in London is £70,000, which prices most people out of home ownership in the capital.

High private rents make it impossible to save for a suitable deposit, ensuring that only those with families able and willing to help can access the property ladder.

London has the most acute housing problems, not least because Mayor Boris Johnson is in league with property speculators to enable overseas interests to buy new-build homes and leave them empty as appreciating capital assets.

However, the situation is critical in many parts of Britain, as inability to find an affordable home obliges record numbers of people in their twenties and thirties to live with their parents.

Just a decade ago, 55.6 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds owned a home with a mortgage but that has dropped to just 33.7 per cent.

The Tory Party has had an obsession with private ownership of homes since Margaret Thatcher began whittling away at public housing stock by forcing local authorities to sell council homes to sitting tenants.

Although beneficial to people buying their homes, this made the situation more difficult for over a million people languishing on council waiting lists.

No wonder that both the SNP in Scotland and Labour in Wales have pledged to end the right-to-buy scheme for council tenants.

While Welsh Tories have attacked the decision by Labour in Cardiff as “an anti-aspiration, nanny-state-knows-best decision,” most people in Wales understand the problems associated with right to buy.

Too many right-to-buy homes have ended up in the private rented sector and it’s necessary to protect existing council properties for people who need them.

Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie lauds right to buy as having liberated council tenants from “postcode prejudice,” as though buying your home involves a geographical relocation, but the scheme brought about a loss of half a million publicly rented homes over a 30-year period.

Flogging off public-sector rented accommodation rages on unchecked in England, with massive discounts of up to £75,000 outside London and £100,000 inside the capital.

Despite this, home ownership has fallen to its lowest level for 30 years, with a huge spike in the private rented sector to 19 per cent.

Labour councils, such as Hammersmith, remain mired in the Blairite “private is good” mindset, considering a sell-off of its entire housing stock.

Ed Miliband and shadow housing minister Emma Reynolds have plans for housing growth areas in which local councils can stipulate a proportion of “affordable” homes for first-time buyers, but they fail to understand that the housing crisis will not be resolved within the private market.

The biggest assistance to first-time buyers would be a massive council housebuilding programme for rent.

This would take the steam out of the private market, lower the rate of price inflation and place people’s needs at the heart of housing policy rather than speculators’ greed.