Britain is now building the smallest homes in Europe, according to Policy Exchange, the think tank.

While the rest of Europe builds houses of an average 100 sq m, in the UK we squeeze into just 76 sq m.

The effect on room sizes is dramatic. While in England the average room is 15.8 sq m, in Germany, for example, it averages 21.4 sq m.

Nimbyism, the drive to squeeze more profits out of smaller plots, an increasing number of singletons and planning constraints have been blamed for Britain’s move to more pokey homes.

Groups such as the Campaign to Protect Rural England argue that we should build more densely in towns but others argue that only 8 per cent of land in Britain is urban, less than in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany or Denmark, while nearly 78 per cent of British land is in agricultural use, more than in any other EU country.

The Government wants to see more family homes being built, perhaps to keep the middle classes from deserting city centres.

But it faces an uphill struggle.

This year a Nationwide Building Society report found that the premium buyers are prepared to pay for new homes, compared with a similar second-hand one, had fallen to 6 per cent from up to 20 per cent in the late 1990s. The report claims that the main factor driving that decline is a drop in size.

But while buyers have become more aware of value for money, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) claims that housebuilders are responding to demands for larger homes by building bigger entrance halls — to give the impression of a more generous living space.

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