Years of negativity towards house builders have led to serious misconceptions amongst the general public regarding housebuilding activity, a survey has revealed.

The new research revealed that over 89% of people substantially overestimated how much of the UK has been developed with only 19% correctly guessing just 11%.

When asked how much undeveloped land would be used if developers were to build all the homes needed over the next fifty years, only 13% of respondents guessed correctly at 1%.

Over time, these negative attitudes towards house builders have led to the belief that England is being concreted over at an alarming rate, causing a massive decrease in greenbelt land. In fact, the greenbelt covers 1.68 million hectares of England – 13% of the total land area – and it is increasing every year.

An astonishing 19,000 hectares of land have been added to the Green Belt since 1997 with another 12,000 hectares in current plans, while most greenbelt development actually takes place on previously used, or brownfield, land. Yet only 9% of those surveyed were aware that the greenbelt had expanded, with 72% believing it had decreased in size.

Philip Davies, chief executive of Linden Homes said: "A long and sustained campaign against housebuilding in this country since the Second World War has left a legacy of negative attitudes and suspicion."

"Although most people in the UK are aware there is a chronic housing shortage, often resulting in their children often being priced out of the local area, their perceptions of actual levels of development in the UK are very wide of the mark."

"The vast majority of those surveyed – 81% - believed that development should be restricted to brownfield land only where it is available."

"Housebuilders too are acutely aware of the need for brownfield land to be developed first, which is why they have already well exceeded the government’s target of 60% of all housebuilding to take place on brownfield by 2008. At Linden Homes, this figure stands at over 95%."