More people are renting their homes from private landlords than at any time in the past 30 years, according to a new report.

The report, put together by independent think tank ResPublica and trade body Co-operatives UK, shows that 30 years ago 61% of people in the UK owned their home.

That number gradually increased throughout the 1990s, but dropped off from the year 2000 as renting became more popular. The homeownership figure now stands, once again, at 61%.

The report also shows that the number of people renting privately has overtaken the number renting publicly. While in 1985 30% of people rented from public landlords and just 9% from private landlords, today 22% rent privately and just 9% rent from a public body.

Phillip Blond, director of ResPublica, said: “Lady Thatcher’s vision of an economy with widespread ownership has not yet been realised. This is a major fault line in our society because where there is ownership there are stakeholders creating decent civilised communities. If we want people and places to flourish we must have mass ownership.

“It is only where there is ownership that people want to protect and care for what they own, creating a legacy for themselves, their children and their communities.

“At the moment we are failing to extend economic ownership to everyone, ownership is an unrealisable dream for too many. Welfare has failed to save the poor from their lot, only the possibility of mass ownership offers the possibility of ending poverty, this is our dream and this should be the aim of all our policy.”