Sussex councils failed to take part in a key Government study which today warned a shortage of new houses has led to property prices spiralling out of control.

Kate Barker, a senior adviser to the Bank of England's Monetary Committee, invited local authorities worried by a shortage of homes to participate in the survey.

But Ms Barker's interim report, published today, reveals not a single Sussex council submitted evidence - despite the crippling shortage of homes.

Overall, more than 100 academics, business leaders, charities, investors and housebuilders took part.

The county's only representation came from the South East of England Regional Development Agency (SERA).

SERA warned congested roads and a lack of roadbuilding was leading to a shortage of new homes in Sussex and elsewhere in the region.

Its submission added: "We do not have an exhaustive list but the number of dwellings involved is undoubtedly in the thousands, with particular problems in East Sussex, Kent and West Sussex."

Ms Barker agreed, saying a lack of infrastructure, such as roads and schools, was currently holding up the construction of more than 40,000 homes in the South-East alone.

But her report said a shortage of land available to developers was the main cause of the problem.

She added that house-builders were also reluctant to develop brown field sites and controlled the release of new properties on large developments to maximise profits.

Nationwide in 2001, only 175,000 new homes were built in the UK, the lowest level since the Second World War.

During the past ten years the number of new properties built was 12.5 per cent lower than during the previous decade.

Ms Barker said this had contributed to UK house prices rising by an average of 2.4 per cent in real terms during the past 30 years.

Overall, 145,000 new homes would need to be built each year to lower the real rate of house price inflation in the UK to the European average of 1.1 per cent, while 240,000 would need to be built to reduce it to zero.

Ms Barker warned radical measures may be needed to solve the problem, but freeing up planning legislation would be too simplistic.