Homes too costly for key staff

Large parts of the West Midlands have become unaffordable for key public sector workers, according to a report out today.

Nurses, teachers, police officers, firefighters and ambulance crews are increasingly finding themselves priced out the chance of owning their home by soaring house prices.

More than two-thirds of UK towns are now considered unaffordable because house prices are out of reach for these key workers whose salaries would not cover the mortgage repayments.

Across the Black Country nurses are particularly badly affected - on their average wage they would be unable to buy a house even in Tipton, which has some of the cheapest houses in the area.

In London, the house price to earnings ratio for a nurse stands at 10.1, meaning the average property is valued at more than 10 times their annual gross average earnings. In Wolverhampton it is 6.4, and in Stourbridge 8.6.

A location is considered unaffordable if the ratio is above that of the the average UK first-time buyer's salary against the cost of their property - set at 4.46.

That means whole towns across the Black Country and Staffordshire are now considered unaffordable for public sector workers, including Wolverhampton, Stourbridge, Stafford, Kidderminster, Cannock, Lichfield and Walsall.

Birmingham is also too expensive, with its average house price too costly for the average police officer, firefighter, teacher or nurse.

In other towns the story is more mixed. In Dudley the average police officer could afford to get on to the property ladder, but not a teacher or a nurse.

In nearby Brierley Hill police officers are joined by teachers as the public sector workers just about able to scrape together enough to pay for a mortgage on a first home.

Smethwick, Bilston, West Bromwich, Willenhall and Tipton also feature on the Halifax list as more affordable destinations.

Nationally the Halifax research showed the typical property in 70 per cent of towns was now beyond the reach of the five key worker groups.

The average house price in your area:

Town Average House price

Stourbridge £210,832

Stafford £184,339

Kidderminster £180,834

Cannock £161,747

Wolverhampton £156,800

Walsall £155,223

Birmingham £154,441

Dudley £142,944