Latest Research from Halifax Indicates Keyworker Housing Affordability Continues to Improve

    YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, April 19, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Latest research from Halifax shows that housing affordability has improved considerably for key public sector workers since house prices peaked in September 2007.

Martin Ellis, housing and mortgage economist at Halifax, commented:
"Housing affordability for key public sectors workers has improved significantly across the UK since house prices peaked in 2007. More than four in ten towns are now affordable compared with just three per cent in 2007. The greatest concentration of this improvement has been in northern England, Wales and Scotland. There are still considerable affordability issues for key workers in London and the South East.

"A combination of house price declines and growth in earnings has contributed to this improvement in affordability. However, house prices nationally have changed little in the past year, which together with pressure on public sector earnings, has resulted in only a modest improvement in home affordability for key workers in the past 12 months."

Significant improvements in affordability for teachers
All five key worker occupations analysed - nurses, teachers, police officers, fire fighters and paramedics - have seen large improvements in affordability during the period. In 2007, Wishaw in Scotland was the only affordable town for nurses. However, there are now 113 towns (25%) that are affordable for nurses.The most considerable gains have been for teachers (both primary and secondary) with an increase in affordable towns from 6% in 2007 to 47% in 2012, followed by police officers (15% to 51%) and paramedics (23% to 56%).

More towns become affordable, but Wales is most affordable region
Over the past year, 32 towns have become more affordable for keyworkers, but 15 have become less affordable - resulting in a 4% increase in the number of affordable towns overall. Peterborough, Lincoln, Morpeth, Glasgow, Clacton on Sea, Coventry and Wakefield are amongst those to become affordable over the last. Hinckley in Leicestershire, Newcastle upon Tyne, Dover and Beverley in East Yorkshire are among those that have become less affordable in the past year. [See Table 4]

Wales is the most affordable region in the UK for key workers, with an average house price to key worker earnings ratio of 3.6 in 2012. The North (3.7), Yorkshire and the Humber (3.8) and the North West (3.8) follow closely behind. By comparison, in 2007, no region had a house price to earnings ratio below 5.0. Unsurprisingly, Greater London (7.6) and the South East (6.6) are still the least affordable regions for key workers. [See Table 1]

The most affordable mortgages in 2012 are in the North West
The three most affordable towns for key workers are in the North West. Nelson in Lancashire is the most affordable town with an average house price to key worker earnings ratio of 2.4, followed by Bootle in Merseyside (2.4) and Darwen in Lancashire (2.5).

The least affordable areas for key workers are all in London and the South East where house prices are well above the national average. These include Kensington and Chelsea (18.4), Leatherhead (13.8) and Westminster (13.7). Clacton on Sea in Essex and Gosport in Hampshire are the only towns in the South East that are affordable; there are none in London. [See Table 2]

Current levels of affordability are still low compared with a decade ago...
More than half (55%) of towns were affordable in 2002 compared with 41% in 2012. During this period, nurses have fared the worst, In 2002 just under a half (46%) of towns were affordable to nurses compared to one in four (25%) today. Fire fighters have seen the number of affordable towns drop by a third. There has been a 20% reduction for police officers and 15% for teachers.

EDITORS' NOTES:

*AFFORDABILITY CALCULATION
To determine which towns are affordable for key public sector workers we have analysed the house price to earnings ratio for each key public sector worker occupation in each town against the UK historical average house price to gross annual earnings ratio of 4.0. Where key public sector worker price to earnings ratio is below 4.0 the town is classified as affordable; above 4.0 is unaffordable. The multiple of 4.0 is approximately equivalent to an average loan to income multiple of 3.25 plus a 19% deposit, or a 3.5 times multiple and a 12.5% deposit. This calculation is based on a single income and therefore conservative.

The house price to earnings ratio for key public sector worker occupations is calculated by dividing the average house price in each post town by the gross regional annual average earnings for the relevant occupation. The earnings calculation for key public sector workers has been sourced from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) which provides average salaries. Very importantly, the numbers used in this release are not entry-level salaries, e.g. the ONS average salary for a nurse is GBP30,741.

Note 1 this is based on the UK average salary for nurses (SOC 3211) from the April 2011 ASHE release uplifted by the change in weekly average earnings (KA17) with Halifax estimate to March 2012.

DATA SOURCES:
This research is based on data from Halifax's own extensive housing statistics database and ONS data on average earnings.
House Prices
House prices are at post town level, the prices used are simple arithmetic ('crude') averages. These prices are not standardised and therefore can be affected by changes in the sample from period to period
Average Earnings
Earnings data for key public sector occupation is from the ASHE April 2011 release and uplifted by the change in weekly average earnings (KA17) with Halifax estimate to March 2012.

The following average annual earnings (ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings codes shown in brackets next to each occupation type) havehave been used in this analysis. It should be noted that this salary data will take into account varying lengths of service and salary grades so is not indicative of the salary for a new-starter.

In this review the key workers occupation types are based on the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes as provided in ASHE April 2011. These are:
- Full-time teachers (SOC 2314/2315) in primary and secondary school roles.
- Full-time nurses (SOC 3211).
- Full-time police officers (SOC 3312) who hold the rank of sergeant or below.
- Full-time fire fighters (SOC 3313) at the rank of leading fire officer or below.
- Full-time paramedics (SOC 3213)

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"This report is prepared from information that we believe is collated with care, however, it is only intended to highlight issues and it is not intended to be comprehensive. We reserve the right to vary our methodology and to edit or discontinue/withdraw this, or any other report. Any use of this report for an individual's own or third party commercial purposes is done entirely at the risk of the person making such use and solely the responsibility of the person or persons making such reliance." Bank of Scotland plc all rights reserved 2012.

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