English house prices have increased TWICE as fast as income since 2000 with average home in London 'unaffordable' for even Britain's highest earners, damning ONS report reveals

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House prices in England have increased twice as fast as income since 2000 with the average home in London 'unaffordable' for even Britain's highest earners. 

The damning report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) astonishingly found that only the richest 10pc of households can afford to buy a home with less than five years of household income in the year to March 2023.

The average annual disposable income was at £35,000 during that period with the average cost of a home in England at £298,000, a ratio of 8.6 the ONS said.

For those in the poorest households, the average priced property in England was equivalent to 18.2 times above average income. 

While the price of the average home in the capital was staggeringly deemed to be 'unaffordable' for every income group.  

It compared to 5.8 in Wales, 5.6 in Scotland, and 5.0 in Northern Ireland. 

ONS says it defines properties costing more than five years of income as 'unaffordable'.    

It lays bare the housing crisis gripping the nation as premier Sir Keir Starmer vowed to bulldoze the objections of local people to get hundreds of thousands of new homes built across Britain.   

House prices in England have increased twice as fast as income since 2000 with the average home in London 'unaffordable' even for Britain's highest earners

Chris Curtis MP, Co-Chair of the Labour Growth Group and member of the Housing Select Committee, said the figures 'demonstrate the staggering scale of our country's housing crisis and underline the urgency of the task facing this Government to end it'. 

'It is quite frankly shameful that house prices have risen at double the rate of household incomes over the past 20 years,' he said.

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Keir Starmer vows to bulldoze 'Nimby' objections to housebuilding led by 'blockers and bureaucrats'

'To halt this trend we need grow our economy so that rising pay-packets mean it's not just the privileged few who can afford to get on the housing ladder.

'Alongside this we need to be truly radical in reforming the broken planning system and explore innovative solutions to crowd private investment into building more affordable and social housing.'

Sir Kier said on Friday that the UK was being 'held to ransom by blockers and bureaucrats' to unleash a surge in construction.

Writing in the Times he said that Nimbys were 'suffocating the aspirations of working families and obscuring the future of our country'. 

As well as blocking housing he also attacked blocks on vital infrastructure to go with them, including roads, electricity pylons and reservoirs.

The PM sounded a warning to English councils yesterday that he would not be afraid to 'step in' if local leaders 'dodge their responsibilities' in approving plans to build new homes in their region. 

The Prime Minister said the UK was being 'held to ransom by blockers and bureaucrats' 

Writing in the Times he said that Nimbys were 'suffocating the aspirations of working families and obscuring the future of our country'

'But where local leaders dodge their responsibilities for deciding where and how homes should be built, and needlessly oppose developments that would provide good homes, we won’t be afraid to step in,' he wrote in The Observer. 

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Rayner vs the Nimbys: Deputy PM to 'streamline' rules to build 1.5m homes - and sideline locals

'More powers, more responsibilities.'

But he is facing kickback from local councils, including those run by Labour, who say a target of 1.5million new homes by 2029 - 300,000 per year - set by Housing Secretary Angela Rayner is 'unrealistic'. 

Yvonne Gagen, the Labour leader of West Lancashire Borough Council, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme its target had been upped from 166,000 news homes to 605,000.

'The targets are unrealistic and we will really, really struggle to deliver that,' she said.

'I really do feel that the government should start listening to the vast majority of councils. I feel that we are going to be on a collision course with Labour and it is not just Labour councils, it is Liberal Democrats, it is Conservatives, they have all said them same thing.'

Writing in the Times, Sir Keir said: 'Britain is in the grip of the worst housing crisis in living memory.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has vowed to 'streamline' planning rules for new homes in order to thwart local councils and other 'Not In My Back Yard' protests from locals

'For too long, the country has been held to ransom by the blockers and bureaucrats who have stopped the country building, choked off growth and driven prices through the roof. 

'They're suffocating the aspirations of working families and obscuring the future of our country. Those days are over...

'Generations before us built the infrastructure the entire nation was proud of — from civic buildings to train stations, hospitals to schools.

'So we will introduce a new golden era of building. That's why we're fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major infrastructure by the end of parliament, more than double those decided in the previous parliament.

'We'll build the schools, the hospitals, the railways and roads, the towns and villages, that will shape our national landscape for years to come and fuel growth in every region and nation.'

His Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has vowed to go to war with Nimbys saying the UK needed to build homes on a scale not seen since the 1950s.

Ms Rayner vowed to 'streamline' planning rules for new homes in order to thwart local councils and other 'Not In My Back Yard' protests from locals.

And she warned that too many people are being priced out of having a family home and that radical action is needed to increase the supply.