The latest figures issued by the government shows that the term ‘housing affordability’ has now been replaced by ‘housing unaffordability’.

The ONS’ latest figures (Office for National Statistics) highlights the average working people’s plight when expecting to buy a home, as they faced having to pay an average of 7.6 times of their annual wage for homes in England and Wales in 2016, whereas in 1997 it was 3.6 times the average annual wage.

The average price paid for homes in England and Wales has rocketed by 259% between 1997 and 2016 whilst average wages increased by just 68%.

From the ONS’ data, Copeland in the north of England was the local authority that had the lowest increase in house prices over the same period, which equated to just 2.8 times the average wage.

Kensington and Chelsea unsurprisingly came out on top for having the steepest rise in house prices as it now stands at 38.5 times greater than the average annual wage.

The ONS’ data also shows that the gap has significantly widened between the least and most affordable regions of England and Wales over the last twenty years, and that unaffordability has drastically raised throughout all local authority districts.

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