In March 2007, the average house price was unaffordable in 363 out of 517 towns across the nation, a 5 per cent increase since last year and a 36 per cent increase from the 185 towns it was five years ago.
Nurses and fire fighters face the greatest affordability problems after it was found that the average house price in 99 per cent of all towns was unaffordable for the typical nurse, and 97 per cent of fire fighters.
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These problems are worst in the London and the South West. The average house was unaffordable for key workers in all 32 London boroughs surveyed and all 34 towns surveyed in the South West. However Truro and Buxton have seen the largest deterioration in key worker affordability over the past five years.
Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire is the least affordable place for key workers to buy, with a house price to earnings (PE) ratio of at least 20.8 times that of a key worker, followed by Kensington & Chelsea in London and Weybridge in Surrey which was 14.9 times PE ratio.
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Lochgelly in Fife is the most affordable town in the UK, with a further four Scottish towns making the top ten. The most affordable in England is Nelson in the North West.
In the past five years, there are 61 towns that used to be affordable to all key workers which have now moved to being unaffordable for all. The 20 least affordable towns are all located in the south, and nationwide, flats are the most affordable type of house for key workers.
Nurses struggle the most to get on the housing ladder, followed by fire fighters and teachers.
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Tim Crawford, group economist at Halifax, commented: “Housing affordability continues to deteriorate for key workers across Great Britain and it is now clearly not a problem confined to the south of England. The government’s key worker schemes are providing some relief but given recent trends there would clearly be benefits from broadening their reach.”
