On top of all that, the region has the second highest rate of fuel poverty in the country. All these factors are why there is a desperate need for more affordable homes to be built. The numbers speak for themselves but when you dig a little bit deeper the alarm bells really start ringing. In York for example, rents are rising at a faster rate than they are in London, and you now need more than ten times the average earnings to buy the average home in the city.
And in the region’s most expensive area of Harrogate and Knaresborough, where the average home costs almost £420,000, they would need to find another £285,000 before they could afford to buy the average priced home. The situation is worse for care workers and trainee police officers whose annual salaries are much lower.