FEWER than half the Addingham people needing a new roof over their head can afford to buy one in the village they live in, a survey has revealed.

The housing nightmare faced by young people in the Wharfe Valley as a whole has been laid bare by the survey which shows that the average price for a house in the village is £140,000 for a two-bedroom and £170,000 for a three-bedroom property.

According to the survey, 58 per cent of people who said they were in housing need would not be able to afford a mortgage unless they moved to an area where houses were cheaper.

At a meeting of Addingham Parish Council, rural housing enabler Clare Hemming said that the survey was conducted in April last year with 687 forms being returned from 1,687 sent out.

The results showed that 116 people identified themselves as being in housing need - most were single people but 23 per cent were couples and 21 per cent were families.

Ms Hemming said: "The survey does not identify those who have already left the area due to the lack of affordable housing, those that work but do not live there, or those living without fixed addresses."

The results revealed that most people would prefer to buy their home rather than rent but to afford the mortgage payments people would have to have an income of more than £420 per week.

"Young people are desperate to get on the property ladder," said Ms Hemming.

Although the figures make shocking reading for residents, help is at hand from the new development of 64 homes at Low Mill.

Seventeen of the new flats have been designated as 'affordable'. Jim Shephard, of the Home Housing Association, said he had been in negotiation with the developer Bellway and could reveal the price people would have to pay.

Eight, two-bedroom flats will be for rent at around £90-a-week and nine would be for sale under a shared equity scheme costing between £83,000 and £90,000. The ownership would be split roughly 50-50 between the occupants and the housing association with the housing association still retaining 50 per cent when the property is sold on.

Mr Shephard said that the first priority for allocation would be people who had lived in Addingham for 12 months, and he asked for people to put themselves forward. If there are any left over, they allocation would be extended to cover people from Ilkley, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Menston.

Mr Shephard, whose organisation owns around 84,000 homes, said people had been reluctant to put their names down for houses because they were convinced none were available.

He said: "There has been so little housing that is affordable, there has been a degree of apathy in terms of people putting their names on lists and coming forward."

This anomaly is backed up by Ms Hemming in her report. "Although there is intense competition for affordable properties, the number of respondents in housing need who have registered with the local authority is low," she says.

Mr Shephard said that he would be putting an advert in the Ilkley Gazette to try and find candidates for the new homes.

After the meeting, parish council chairman Gordon Campbell said: "I thought it was excellent news - I hope that once we have advertised it properly to the young ones they would take advantage of it - I hope they would grab the chance to get on the property ladder."

He said he was particularly pleased that people who had lived in the village would get the first priority of the affordable homes and expected the list to be oversubscribed.