More than half of the UK population believe they or their children will not be able to afford to buy their own home in twenty years time, a survey finds.

The National Housing Federation, who carried out the survey, has now launched a campaign for affordable housing.

It claims that booming housing prices are disguising the fact that people are being priced out of the market altogether.

Only 44% of the 2,000 people surveyed thought that future generations would be able to afford to buy a home.

Interest rate rise to cool prices

Rising house prices was one of the factors that prompted the Bank of England to raise interest rates last week.

Already, homeowners are counting the cost after three of the UK's biggest mortgage lenders raised their rates by 0.25%.

Halifax, Nationwide and Cheltenham & Gloucester have all raised their standard variable rate.

House prices on a roll

The UK housing market ended the year with a bang as prices rose by 2.6% in December, the second biggest monthly increase in 1999, according to the Halifax.

The figure means the annual rate of house price inflation jumped to 13.8% last month, up from 10.7% in November.

The rise means that the average price of a house is now £83,108, more than £10,000 higher than the average of £73,071 a year ago.

The Halifax expects the market to remain relatively strong this year, but does not anticipate a boom similar to that of the late 1980s.