The new-builds are needed in order to reduce demand for housing, a group has said.
Millions of new homes need to be built in the UK in order to make housing more affordable, ministers have been advised.
The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU) suggested today that the government build around three million additional properties by 2020 in order to alleviate pent-up market demand - a figure far outstripping prime minister Gordon Brown's stated target of two million.
NHPAU also said that the current decline in the mortgage and housing market, which has seen recent falls in house prices, should not put the government off from homebuilding. "This is about acting now in advance of the next upturn," the unit's chairman Stephen Nickell said.
"While inevitably there is now a focus on the gloomy short-term prospects and some uncertainty arising from this, for the sake of communities and future generations it is vital that planners and decision makers keep an eye on the medium and long-term," he added.
"This is about acting now in advance of the next upturn."
According to latest figures from the UK's largest mortgage lender, Halifax, house prices in the UK are currently dropping at the rate of 2.5 per cent per month.
