New research by Shelter reveals the extent of the region’s housing shortage, where only 30 per cent of suitable homes for sale are affordable for a typical family in Bradford hoping to get on the property ladder.

The charity looked at asking prices for all of the properties for sale in Yorkshire and the Humber on a single day, and compared them with the mortgage that families, couples and single people on average wages could afford as first time buyers.

In a third of all authority areas in Yorkshire and the Humber fewer than one in ten of the homes on the market were affordable for families – even assuming that they were able to save a large 20 per cent deposit.

The picture is even bleaker for those looking to take part in the Government’s mortgage guarantee scheme, Help to Buy, where a 95 per cent mortgage would mean higher monthly mortgage costs, and put even more homes out of reach.

Several affordability black-spots were also uncovered, where the chances of finding a suitable property were near zero. They include Harrogate where only two in every 100 homes for sale were affordable, York (three per cent affordable) and Craven (six per cent affordable).

Bradford is higher, with 30 per cent affordable, with Kingston upon Hull having the most affordable housing at 58 per cent.

It comes weeks after the National Housing Federation warned that Bradford has an affordable-homes crisis which is worsening year-by-year.

The federation, which represents housing associations, says a rising number of people are being priced out of a market where the average house price is £142,000 but average earnings are £18,500.

Rob Warm, head of external affairs at the National Housing Federation, said: “Shelter’s new findings echo our own research.”

Councillor Val Slater, the executive member for planning for the Council, had previously also warned that some developers were not building in Bradford because they regarded it as not being viable, a situation she described as “worrying”.

The Council is now working closely with Incommunities, the district's biggest social housing group, to try to go some way to address the situation and is also starting to build homes itself.

The figures were also revealed a day after social housing group Manningham Housing Association said that it supported the National Housing Federation’s view that the city has an affordable homes crisis.

Ansar Ali, the chief executive of Manningham Housing Association, claimed reduced Government subsidies and the state of the market for their scaled back development portfolio of 42 homes from a high of building 100 houses a year.