West Midlands 'least affordable region' for new build home buying

The West Midlands is the least affordable region for working families to climb on to the property ladder, according to new research.

Around 93% of privately renting families are unable to buy their own home despite government help-to-buy incentives, according to housing charity Shelter.

The charity say that even with the loan scheme - which only requires a 5% deposit - most were still priced out meaning the national picture shows 80% of working families across England are in the same situation.

Shelter claim the current "speculative" way housebuilding works has resulted in a conflict of interests and a highly combative local planning process.

Instead, the charity wants to see a "new civic housebuilding" system introduced to support the building of new, affordable high quality homes, with greater powers for local authorities over land in their area.

Under Shelter's proposed initiative, landowners could choose to sell at reasonable prices, or invest their land as equity and own shares in a development, taking long-term returns and a share of the profit.

The charity said civic housebuilding that met the needs of communities was used to deliver the Georgian "new towns" of Edinburgh and Bath, the Edwardian garden cities and the post-war new towns.

Graeme Brown, Shelter's interim chief executive, said families had given up on the idea of home ownership in a system that was "rigged" and that the current way of building homes has had its day and it has "failed the nation."

The Government recently launched a white paper to boost housebuilding and fix the "broken" housing market.Under the reforms, every local area will need to produce plans to make sure enough land is released in areas where people want to live.

A Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) spokesman said: