If the government can building its promised 1.5 million homes by the end of this parliament then “we will be looking at the levelling out of prices and then over the real medium- to long-term perhaps their gradual reduction”, Pennycook said.

Around 300,000 new homes have been finished since Labour took power.

Speaking to the FT, Pennycook added that the current housebuilding system “locks in an upward ratchet of land and house prices”.

The government is due to unveil a housing strategy in the very near future that is meant to encourage different housebuilding models to those used by large developers.

The London property market may be due a correction, Pennycook said, as there are “people in London that bought land at the top of the market for too high a price and are now sitting on it. And there will probably need to be a market adjustment in London”.

Last week the government’s record on housebuilding came under fire by former Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, who said the government is its own worst enemy with meeting housing targets.

Government interventions have made housing targets, which were already looking unrealistic with the slowdown in new builds, even more difficult, according to the independent Housing Oversight Committee headed by Cable.