Serious problems may be lurking below the surface of many homes, said the report, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

It called for a Government-led strategy to tackle a �37bn backlog of home repairs and persuade home-owners to invest in maintenance.

Action was needed now to prevent the national repair bill - which includes 1.8m properties which are officially unfit for human habitation - from getting worse.

An ageing stock of homes, a growing proportion of elderly home-owners and job and relationship instability would lead to an increase in the number of people who found it hard to maintain their properties, it said.

The conditions of houses were especially likely to deteriorate in the south Wales valleys.

Inner city areas of the Midlands and north of England, former mining areas and declining coastal resorts were also pinpointed as blackspots by the report.

The report's author, Professor Philip Leather of the University of Birmingham, drew together findings from 14 different research projects in England, Scotland and Wales.

"Television programmes that encourage spending on redecoration and home 'make-overs' are all very well," he said.

"But more important is the less glamorous task of tackling serious disrepair - doing the unseen jobs to remedy damp and deterioration.