LABOUR’S new shadow housing minister launched an independent investigation into home ownership yesterday, telling his party conference that buying a house was “part of the British dream.”

In Brighton, John Healey MP told delegates that housebuilder Taylor Wimpey boss Peter Redfern would lead the inquiry and report on his findings next year.

According to figures by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), there has been a sharp decline in first-time and young buyers over the past five years and a constant rise in privately rented accommodation.