YOUNG first time buyers are being priced out in rural areas of Dorset, a campaign group claims.

Research by the Housing Federation, which campaigns for affordable housing, shows that property is at least nine times the average income in West Dorset, Purbeck and North Dorset, compared to a national average of 6.8 times average income.

The analysis took the average wage of the 25 per cent lowest-paid part of the population and compared it with the average price of the lowest 25 per cent of properties available.

In West Dorset the average wage was £19,079 compared with an average price of £183,000, or 9.6 times income.

In Purbeck the average property costs 9.9 times the average wage and in North Dorset it is 9.1.

The figures have been released to mark Rural Housing Week, which runs until Sunday and aims to bring together the major players in the rural market to find solutions to the affordable housing shortage.

A spokesman said: “Building affordable housing in rural areas would help ease the problem caused by high house prices and low wages. Housing associations provide a range of affordable homes, including shared ownership homes which help local people onto the housing ladder with small deposits.”

Dorchester Town Councillor Stella Jones said ‘something must be done’ about affordable housing.

“This is a very significant difference between the national and local figures. The district council could be doing more to make sure affordable houses are being built - but even affordable housing is not affordable these days.

“Some people cannot even afford to rent. Something’s got to be done, otherwise we are going to have a real problem with homelessness.”

David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation said: “We often hear about the housing crisis in London, but many rural areas are suffering silently from seriously unaffordable housing – the countryside is rapidly becoming no country for young men. This is bad for communities, and chokes off the opportunities for young people. Building affordable housing helps breathe new life into rural communities, and gives young people the future they deserve.”

Shaun Spiers, chief executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “Genuinely affordable, quality housing is vital to a living countryside, but too much of rural England is fast becoming the preserve of the better off. 

“Rural areas are different, which is why policy should be ‘rural proofed’. Rural areas have fewer affordable homes than urban areas; they tend to have lower wages and higher house prices; and it is hard to build new homes in villages, often for very good reasons. So we need to retain the stock of rural social housing and use neighbourhood planning to identify sites for new homes that will be affordable in perpetuity.”