'The proportion of people living alone doubled between 1971 and 2001, to 12 per cent, and remained the same in 2008. Between 1971 and 2008 the proportion of lone parent households increased almost threefold to 11 per cent ... 1.8 million (29 per cent) men and 1.1 million (18 per cent) women aged 20 to 34 lived with their parents in 2008 compared with 27 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women in these age groups in 2001.'

According to today's Social Trends 2009 report from the Office for National Statistics, 'Leaving home is a way of establishing independence and is an important step in the transition to adulthood.' The reasons given for the above trend are a lack of affordable housing (believed by 44 per cent of young adults) and that young adults can't afford to move out (38 per cent).

Yet, is this economic hindrance necessarily a bad thing? Society believes that an individual should be a land-owning, economically-viable unit. Yet, this function used to be fulfilled by the family unit as a whole and the biblical ideal was for property (to be specific, land) to be shared out among tribes and families, and then to be passed between generations. As we have considered previously, it would seem that our expectations for the individual are unrealistic and untenable.

In Morality and the Marketplace: Christian alternatives to capitalism and socialism, Brian Griffith suggested, 'As a result of industrialisation land has been replaced by capital as the most important means of production... In my judgment therefore the equivalent of this principle [that each family should have a permanent stake in economic life] today is the right of each family to home ownership, the need for more diffused and direct ownership of equity capital and the opportunity not just for a formal education but for retraining and post-experience training in later life.'

Thus, while the trend towards people living alone will continue to increase environmental and economic pressures on society, the increase in multi-generational family homes could bring a range of benefits to us all - not least to those who benefit from living in them.

For more on this subject, look out for the chapter on housing in Votewise Now! later in the year, the completely new edition of our general election guide Votewise.

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