THE average house price in South Somerset is now seven times the average annual salary of people living in the region, figures show.

The analysis shows that in 1997 the average house price was just over three times the average annual salary but by 2013 this had more than doubled to seven times the annual salary – a jump of 110%.

The TUC, an umbrella group for unions, believes that the combination of soaring house prices, stagnating pay in the run-up to the crash and the longest real wage squeeze in over a century will leave house prices more out of reach than ever before.

Recent analysis by the TUC found that pay packets in South-West fell by about £1,800 a year in real terms between 2010 and 2013 – a fall of 6.8%.

South-West TUC regional secretary Nigel Costley said: “Areas across the South-West face a major housing crisis.

“Over the last 16 years, house price rises have outstripped people’s pay packets and left huge swathes unaffordable.

“Last year, house prices were more than five times the average local salary in every area of the region.

“We need to build more homes to get house prices back under control.

“With interest rates low, now is the perfect time for an ambitious programme of home-building, which would also help tackle local unemployment problems.

“But as more people give up on buying a home or decide they don’t want to get on the housing ladder, we also need a better deal for renters so that they don’t get clobbered by soaring rents.

“Housing affordability isn’t just about house prices, though.

“Decent wages are just as important and there is a lot of ground to make up before we return to the kind of salaries that people were earning before the crash.”

The Cotswolds is still the most unaffordable area in the South-West, with house prices almost 12 times average salaries.