HOUSES in Wirral cost five times the average local salary, according to new analysis published today.

The TUC said the review shows that homes in half the local authority areas across the region have become out of reach for local people.

The TUC's analysis of average salaries and house prices by local authority area shows that in 1997 the average house price in all areas throughout the region was less than four times the average local salary.

In Wirral the 1997 figure showed the cost of a home was just over three times the median salary, and has risen to 5.2 times.

More than half the local authority areas were “easily affordable” in 1997 – with a house price to local wage ratio of less than three.

No area had a ratio above five – a level which the TUC believes puts home ownership out of reach for local people, particularly if they only have one salary.

Even previously “easily affordable” areas, such as Bury and Rossendale, are now out of reach for many local people with house prices now over five times the average wage.

The affordability ratio of five is particularly significant, says the TUC, as the Bank of England has recently instructed banks to limit the proportion of mortgages they offer that are more than 4.5 times applicants’ salaries.

North West TUC regional secretary Lynn Collins said: “We have seen a huge shift in the North West from a region that contained no area where houses prices were out of reach to local people to one in which almost half now are.

“In 16 years, we have gone from having 21 areas with house prices that are easily affordable to none. Property price rises have outstripped peoples’ pay packets and left huge swathes of the region unaffordable. We need to start implementing solutions to fix this problem.

“We need to build more homes to get house prices back under control. With interest rates low, now is the perfect time for an ambitious programme of home-building, which would also help tackle local unemployment problems."

Ms Collins added: “As more people give up on buying a home or decide they don’t want to get on the housing ladder, we also need a better deal for renters so that they don’t get clobbered by soaring rents.

“Housing affordability isn’t just about house prices though. Decent wages are just as important and there is a lot of ground to make up before we return to the kind of salaries that people were earning before the crash.”