A generation faces reaching middle-age with no prospect of having a home they can call their own, a new report claims.

Rising wealth inequality, soaring debt and sky-high house prices are combining to create a vision of post-Brexit Britain in which today’s young people will spend more on housing than their forefathers but with less to show for it.

As result, for many owning a property will remain a “distant aspiration.” The rise of ‘Generation Rent’, concerns over a widening wealth gap and fears for the impact of benefit changes which could leave young social housing tenants struggling to pay rent, has sparked calls for government action for new measures to help propel a generation into home ownership and better accommodation.

According to new research from the Institute for Public Policy Research, fewer than half of millennials – people born between 1981 and 2000 – are expected to own their own home by the age of 45.

It warns that home ownership, which has been falling since the mid-2000s, is now at its lowest rate in almost 30 years. Among 25 to 34 year olds, it has fallen from 59 per cent in 2003 to 37 per cent in 2015.

It comes against a background of an increasing gap in wealth, with the wealthiest ten per cent of households owning 45 per cent of the country’s wealth, while the least wealthy half of all households own just nine per cent.

Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable said the wealth gap figures threw into question “the very existence of social mobility in 21st century Britain”.

He added: “Tackling inter-generational inequality and the growing concentration of wealth will require radical solutions, including reforms to the taxation of land, property and inheritance.

“Our current tax system, by focusing on income rather than wealth, facilitates the accumulation of unearned assets while punishing productive activity by individuals and businesses.”

IPRR is urging new measures to equalise wealth with tax breaks and better access to housing for young people. Meanwhile Scottish organisations have expressed concerns that today’s young people will be trapped for years to come, while the wealth inequality gap widens.

“For many younger people, owning their own home continues to be no more than a distant aspiration,” said Annie Mauger, Executive Director of CIH Scotland.

“It is clear that a shortage of housing has been a major contributing factor to an increase in wealth inequality between the generations in recent years. As a result, we have seen a significant rise in the percentage of Scots living in the private rented sector – particularly younger people.

“Without a significant step change in the supply of new housing, that situation looks set to continue.”

She said the problem is exacerbated by the UK Government’s planned introduction of a cap on the housing element of Universal Credit at local housing allowance rates from April 2019. “This threatens to leave many thousands of younger social tenants across Scotland facing a significant rent affordability gap, placing them at high risk of falling into rent arrears and, in the worst cases, facing potential homelessness,” she warned.

“In those circumstances, our priority is to ensure that we maximise opportunities for younger people to have access to high quality, affordable housing, be that in the social rented sector, private renting, shared ownership or a range of other options.”

The IPRR research claimed that wealth inequality across the country is twice as great as income inequality, with the wealthiest 10 per cent of households owning 45 per cent of the country's wealth, while the least wealthy half of all households own just nine per cent.

Average household wealth among the least wealthy half of Britons is just £3,200 in net finances, property and pensions, compared with £1.32 million held on average by the wealthiest 10 per cent.

A YouGov poll for the report showed that 74 per cent of respondents expect 18 to 24-year-olds to have fewer savings and investments than previous generations, while 72 per cent believe they will hold less wealth in housing, with 80% say they will probably take on more debt.

Average debt per household is set to increase 21.8 per cent to £85,700 by 2027, based on 2017 prices, according to the IPPR report.

Oxfam Scotland has called on Holyrood to “pursue bold policy action to even up the playing field.”

“Some of the powers for addressing this problem are within Holyrood’s gift: from tax to social protection, housing, procurement and planning,” said Francis Stuart, Research and Policy Adviser at Oxfam Scotland, said: “The wealthiest one per cent of Scottish society own more than the bottom 50 per cent combined.

“This scale of economic inequality feeds into and reinforces broader forms of inequality: between generations, genders, ethnic groups and between disabled people and others.

However Hew Edgar, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Scotland Policy Manager, said that the Scottish Government has provided support for first-time buyers. “Until housing supply starts to meet growing demand and the changing needs of housebuyers – across all tenures – house prices and rents will continue to rise, and this remains a matter of great concern to RICS.”

The IPRR findings echoed earlier research from think tank Resolution Foundation which aims to raise the living standards of people of low to middle incomes. Spokesman Conor D’Arcy said: “Britain’s housing crisis has building for decades. Millennials today spend around a quarter of their income – on housing three times as much as the pre-war generation did at their age. In return for this record spending, young people are being locked out of home ownership and living in small, insecure rented accommodation.

“The government should be vastly more ambitious and directly commission house building. We also need to tax wealth more effectively to address these imbalances.”