HOUSE hunters are forced to live in a tent for a week to ensure they can make their first step on the property ladder.

It sounds like the premise of the latest television reality gameshow, but it is a reflection of the housing crisis in Worcester that first-time buyers are forced to such lengths.

The scenes in Lower Wick this March - when 12 sets of house-hunters camped out to bid for one of 10 former Ministry of Defence homes - are the extreme example of how bad the situation is getting.

Across Worcestershire buyers must find, on average, £181,323 to buy their home. With Worcester City Council having transferred its housing stock to Worcester Community Housing, councillors must rethink what they should be doing to address it.

Social housing

Councillor Roger Berry, Labour's lead member for housing, said he would be pushing the council to provide more social housing through planning rules.

A backbench study he chaired concluded that all new developments in the city containing more than 23 homes must include rented affordable homes.

"I'm optimistic the council will adopt the report in full. My worry is that they don't want to tackle it as a way of ducking the issues," said Coun Berry.

Liberal Democrat candidate, Paul Griffiths, said: "The new local plan sets out quotas for affordable homes in all new housing developments over a certain size. The city council must be firm in insisting that these quotas are met."

Coun Francis Lankester, the Tory cabinet member overseeing housing in the city, explained that the cabinet had informally assessed the report and that these changes will be discussed after the elections.

"On the homeless list, 50 per cent of people have an income of £500 a month which isn't going to buy anything - there is still a very serious need for rented accommodation," he said.

"That's why we need to hold developers to the target of 30 per cent social housing when there is more than 23 plots."