A British Social Attitudes study on housing produced for NatCen Social Research also found 51% of people were completely opposed to having social housing built in their back yard.
This is in spite of 39% believing the strongest housing need in their area is for home to rent from local authorities of housing associations.
When asked about government support for housing just 19% of people said social housing for those on low incomes should be a priority.
The report suggested this could be linked to two in four people citing anti-social behaviour problems on social housing estates as the main disadvantage of this tenure.
Glen Bramley, professor of urban studies at Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh and the author of the report, said: “It seems that social renting may come to be seen less as a tenure of choice and more a tenure of necessity.
“Increasingly, it will become a transitional option rather than one that the tenant can expect to last a lifetime.”
Last autumn the government cut its spend on new social housing by half causing industry pundits to worry that the private rented sector would be expected pick up the slack.
But the NatCen report also found that43% of social tenants think private rents are unaffordable.
John Heron, managing director of Paragon Mortgages, said: “The undersupply of finance and property to the sector has resulted in a shortage of private rented homes and in an increase in rents in the most popular areas - although by no means everywhere.
“There are no simple or quick ways to address this, the undersupply of property is being driven by the difference between the rate of household formation and the level of new build activity, whilst the restrictions on finance to landlords is a feature of the continuing problems in global capital markets.”
