A NEW study into the link between house prices and average wages has given a crumb of consolation for first-time buyers in Burnley.

Housing charity Shelter says in certain parts of England workers would have to earn an extra £100,000 a year to afford a local home. This is the gap in the London borough of Hackney but the gap shortens to £47,000 for Brighton and Hove and £34,000 in Manchester.

Lower house prices in Burnley bring the difference is down to £10,000.

Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive, said: “When you’d need to more than double your salary just to keep up with rising house prices, it is no surprise that the dream of a home of their own is slipping further out of reach for a generation.”

However, housing minister Kris Hopkins argued that the government’s Help To Buy scheme had given assistance to 28,000 households.