"URGENT action" needs to be taken to help young people on to the property ladder in Worcestershire, a city councillor has warned.

With house prices going through the roof, the need for affordable homes has never been greater.

First-time buyers are becoming more and more despondent and the problem is no longer primarily affecting London and the south east.

In Worcester alone, 57.9 per cent of households earn less than £20,000 in a market where most houses cost in excess of £150,000, leaving little chance of raising a deposit, let alone securing a mortgage and coming up with monthly payments.

Earlier this week, the dire situation was highlighted by desperate buyers camping outside a former Army base in Lower Wick in the hope they would be first in line to buy 10 houses up for sale.

And Malvern is no different, with first-time buyers now considered a "rarity" by local estate agents, because prices are so high. The average cost of a three-bedroom semi-detached home is now £165,000.

Hence, the Government concept of affordable housing should be coming into its own.

Councils are no longer allowed to build new houses but the idea means local authorities can work with private developers and Housing Associations to devlope sites for cheap homes.

In Worcester, developers must create a quota of affordable accommodation - one for every 23 dwellings they build.

But at present, 2,000 people are on the city's affordable housing waiting list - 85 per cent of which earn less than £500 a month - while just 50 homes are built each year.

Councillor Roger Berry, chairman of the city's housing policy and review committee, warned that without a push for more affordable housing, young families would have no hope of getting on the property ladder.

"Without urgent action, young people will only be able to get council housing through the homeless system because people on average incomes are being totally priced out of the market," he said.

"Renting may be the only way forward until we increase the number of affordable houses in the city."

One of Worcester's problems is developers submitting plans for 22 houses so they do not have to provide the less profitable social housing and using two-storey penthouse apartments to get round the regulations.

To combat this, the housing policy review committee has suggested a floorspace criteria as a transparent way of stopping them shirking their responsibilities.

Its recommendations will go to the city council's cabinet on April 13.