PEOPLE needed to be earning £33,500 a year to afford a mortgage for a new home in the Bradford district last year, a new report has revealed.

According to data in the National Housing Federation's 'Home Truths' report, the average house price across the district was £146,613 in 2014, below a West Yorkshire average of £159,579.

The income needed for an 80 per cent mortgage was higher than the people's average annual earnings in Bradford, which the federation put at £22,641.

Across Yorkshire and the Humber, average earnings were put at £23,405, well below the £37,942 required for a mortgage, with significantly higher average house prices found in areas such as Harrogate and York.

The report also identified a shortfall of 4,729 homes that should have been built across the district between 2011 and 2014 in order to meet housing demand, more than ten per cent of a shortfall of 45,680 across the region.

The authors of the report said forecasts showed that unless urgent action was taken, the housing shortfall in Yorkshire and the Humber would become "even more acute", with predictions that 342,000 new households will form across the region by 2037.

Jo Allen, external affairs manager for the National Housing Federation in Yorkshire and the Humber, said: "The country is in the midst of a housing crisis that has been a generation in the making, and Yorkshire and the Humber has certainly not been immune to this.

"We are seeing divided markets in the region, with strong confident cities needing a housing offer which matches their growth ambition.

"In some places people are completely priced out of their local communities.

"In others, we see areas which need employment opportunities and investment in empty homes.

"We need to sit down with local leaders to make sure that good quality accessible housing sits alongside skills, jobs, and transport."