IF they're not the edible sort and they're not a type of tie what are kippers?

Kippers is the acronym for the modern phenomenon of Kids in Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings. And according to Linden Homes the housebuilder with a subsidiary based in Harefield, there are now two million parents in the UK with children over the age of 30 living at home.

The average age of a first time buyer is 34, said group chief executive Philip Davies this week.

This situation, he claims, is largely due to an antiquated planning system which is failing to cater for youngsters' needs.

"The severe shortage of new homes is contributing to extortionate property prices," he thundered. "The Government wants to encourage the notion that it is tackling the housing crisis and is exploring ways of providing a new entry level for first time buyers, such as the £60,000 house competition, but the reality is that the planning system cannot cope with an acceleration in building.

"Housing output is at its lowest since the Second World War with 12.5 per cent fewer homes built between 1993 and 2003 than during the previous decade."

The Government and local councils must free up land for development, Davies insisted, and undertake an urgent reform of the planning system which will enable housebuilders to respond to demand.

"The planning system has failed to respond to the demands of the market and as Kate Barker stated in her Review of Housing Supply, local authorities have few incentives to grant planning permission.

"If there aren't enough suitable properties on the market, Gordon Brown's shared equity schemes announced in May will only serve to push prices up higher by creating hundreds of thousands more potential owners while failing to provide enough new homes."

At a local level, said the developer, planning agencies should remove barriers to housebuilding when there is a need to service demand, rather than simply strive towards their own housing targets without considering the wider picture.

"Ironically," concluded Philip Davies, "it is often the 'nimby' attitudes of parents opposing sensible development in their local area that can result in a shortage of starter homes for their children, forcing them to either stay at home or move somewhere more affordable."