More than two-thirds of Britons don't believe the government can achieve its goal of building three million new homes by 2020, according to a survey published on Monday.

And not only that but nearly nine out of 10 people and one in four households has objected in the past year to a local planning application, making the British a nation of NIMBYs (Not In My BackYard), Saint Consulting said.

"We are seeing NIMBYism increasing and local community activism against development spiralling upwards," said Nick Keable, the group's UK managing director.

"Driven by the late baby boomers, what one might call the 'invested generation', this activism bodes badly for the Government's flagship policy of massively increasing residential development," he added.

Founded in 1983, Saint, which has offices in the United States, Britain and Canada, describes itself as the global leader in land use political consultancy.

Not surprisingly, a majority of Britons object strongly to having casinos, landfill sites, power stations, quarries or industrial developments in their backyards, the survey found.

On the other hand schools, private housing and social housing are perfectly acceptable.

And, as the government prepares to relax planning restrictions, nearly one-third of the 1,000 people polled said they thought the system was already too lax.

"With opposition increasing and support for development draining away, it is no great surprise that local authorities are frustrating developers' planning application ambitions," Keable said.

"The multi-million-dollar question therefore remains: how can the development industry identify and motivate its supporters to counteract councils' negativity?"