A gloomy future for the housing market lies ahead if the Tories win next year’s General Election, Labour has warned.

Shadow housing minister Emma Reynolds predicted that home buyers would need an average deposit of £72,000.

House prices would, she said, rise to an average of £359,000 by 2020 – 13 times the average wage predicted for that year.

She said: “The Government talk up the Help to Buy scheme but it’s clear they simply haven’t understood that boosting demand without boosting supply will simply see prices pushed out of reach of families and young people.

“This is the crucial difference between Labour and the Tories. The Tories claim to be the party of home ownership. But on their watch, home ownership has fallen to its lowest point since 1987.”

She also said a ‘housing gap’ the size of Birmingham – a shortage of 1.3m homes – will open up if the Government’s record on house building continues until 2020.

She said that on average Labour councils are committed to building 862 homes a year, Conservative councils are committed to building 508, and the Liberal Democrats promise 393.

She said: “Labour’s vision is that everyone should be able to have a decent home at a price they can afford.

“Only a Labour government will deliver a step change in house building by getting at least 200,000 new homes built a year, so that people can realise their dream of home ownership.”

The new housing minister, Brandon Lewis, rejected Reynolds’ claims as not ‘credible’.

He pointed out: “Under the last government, Britain was building fewer homes than at any time since the 1920’s.

“Labour’s record on housing was truly appalling.”

In yesterday’s speech, Reynolds also pledged that on the private rental side, Labour would bring in rent controls – although she called it “putting a ceiling on excessive rent rises” – and mandatory longer tenancies.

The Residential Landlords Association said such measures would only deter investment in new rented housing at a time when it was desperately needed.