HIGH rates of cramped living is driven by the dwindling number of homeowners, which slumped for the first time in a century from 2001 to 2011, it was revealed yesterday.

By the end of that decade, the amount of owner-occupied homes had fallen by 5 per cent. Menwhile those who rented were much more likely to be stuck in homes that were too small — with two-thirds of people living in overcrowded accommodation being renters.

The sell-off of social housing and sky-high private rents are preventing tenants from moving somewhere bigger or saving for a mortgage deposit.

This means that there are more young people and families stuck in pokey private rental accommodation than ever before, said the Office of National Statistics (ONS) which collated the census figures.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) blamed the government for allowing social tenants to buy their homes and not doing enough to build more genuinely affordable properties.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Successive governments have not made housing a high enough policy priority.”

“Selling off existing affordable homes through right to buy is not the way to deal with Britain’s housing crisis. With the government able to borrow at rock-bottom rates it needs to get out its chequebook and start building.”

At least one million households in England and Wales were living in overcrowded housing — almost one in 20. This jumps to one in 10 in London.

“As a result we now have the most expensive and dysfunctional housing system in Europe, with millions of people living in often sub-standard private rented accommodation,” said Ms O’Grady.

More than two-thirds of those families had been renting their homes and renters are nearly four times more likely than homeowners to live in accommodation too small for their needs.

Of private renters, 8.6 per cent were living in cramped homes, while for social tenants the figure was 8.7 per cent.

This is compared to just 2.3 per cent of mortgage-holders that are also deemed to be living in cramped conditions.