MOST young Worcester families are being squashed into overcrowded homes or forced out of the city altogether by a desperate shortage of affordable housing.

The sheer scale of the city's housing crisis is revealed today in a new local study which found almost three-quarters of Worcester's newly formed families with children now cannot even afford to rent in their home city - let alone buy their own home.

Many are forced to stay with friends or parents, while others crowd into tiny one-bedroom apartments. Many more are forced to move away altogether.

The report shows the problem is not being caused by foreign immigration, but our own ageing population, and the growing number of wealthy Brits moving into the area from other parts of the country.

Housing consultant Rupert Scott, who carried out the study on behalf of Worcester, Malvern Hills and Wychavon district councils, said: "Worcester is losing families. There really is an urgent need for more low-cost family housing."

Mr Scott's study paints a stark picture of life for the 72 per cent of new families with children who do not earn enough to rent a two-bedroom house in Worcester. He found the average waiting time for any house on the city council's waiting list is now almost five years. There are currently more than 2,500 names on the list.

It is not just families who are suffering - more than two-thirds of new single-person households and almost half of new couple households cannot afford to rent even a one-bedroom flat in Worcester. But it is the shortage of family houses which is by far the greatest concern.

Mr Scott said the problem is being caused by two key pressures on the city's already-limited housing stock, which have led demand to far outstrip supply and sent house prices soaring out of the reach of many wage levels.

The first is Britain's ageing population - as elderly people live longer, their homes are not coming available as quickly as new households are being formed by our young people.

The other important factor is migration into the area by wealthy commuters and pensioners from Birmingham, Bristol and the south-east who aspire to live in less urban areas.

Mr Scott made it clear foreign immigration was "not a primary cause". Less than a tenth of the affordable homes taken up in Worcester last year were let to ethnic minorities.

The only solution, he said, is to build more affordable homes and so reduce the long waiting lists.

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