Report: Housing crisis plagues Britain

LONDON, June 28 (UPI) -- Britain's chief housing market adviser says the credit crunch will continue to hamper access to new homes in the U.K. for years to come.

Citing a report written by Stephen Nickell, an Oxford professor and chairman of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown's National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, The Daily Telegraph said the group is predicting a much deeper housing crisis than previously thought, one that might not end until 2015. It warned of continued "severe rationing" in the mortgage markets, which is hindering first-time home buyers from taking advantage of lower prices in Britain.

"(Lenders) are severely rationing first-time buyers in every way they can think of, from raising rates to increasing their fees and the amount of deposit they are demanding," Nickell writes in the report.

Nickell reportedly warns the situation will take years to correct itself, saying, "The collapse in lending and new mortgages is quite severe at the moment, and that's going to take quite a long time to reverse. The housing market -- in terms of the price of houses -- will not look much the same as it did before the credit crunch until after six or seven years."