Return of a Victorian house habit

The number of British households with three or more generations living under the same roof is reaching levels last seen in Victorian times, new research has shown.

Multi-generational household have increased by 7 per cent in the past five years and now stand at 517,000, the highest since the mid 19th-century.

And by 2030 they are likely to have surpassed the Victorian peak of 608,000, reports the website Ancestry.co.uk.

But as a proportion of the population the number is lower. Ancestry says that in the 19th century, as today, the shortage of affordable housing drove multiple generations to share a property.

As a result, parents or grandparents would often move back in with their children.

Today one in ten adults, or 4.7 million people, have grown up children living with them, the Changing Times report says.

Miriam Silverman, the site’s UK content manager, pointed out that the number of households taking in lodgers today – 970,000 – is similar to the 933,000 Victorian estimate.

Ms Silverman said: “The boom in population that came with the industrial revolution led to some quite severe overcrowding – just as we are experiencing today.”