Housing charity Shelter has called for a massive expansion of shared ownership homes for a generation of ‘forgotten families’ in Yorkshire who are priced out of home ownership and with no hope of social housing.

It warned new Government initiatives to help people onto the housing ladder would leave more than half of Yorkshire families on low and average incomes still unable to afford the monthly mortgage repayments on a family-sized home using Help to Buy – even if they had a deposit.

Shelter has highlighted a swathe of squeezed middle families, typically earning £20,000 to £40,000, facing the prospect of years of private renting or being trapped on the first rung of the property ladder. It estimates that as many as 1.8 million families in England could fall into this group.

Analysis of incomes and house prices showed that in Yorkshire rapidly rising property prices meant the traditional market left 45 per cent of these families priced out of a family-sized home.

Shelter warned that many faced years in private lets, paying out dead money in rent and facing the insecurity of short-term tenancy contracts of six or 12 months. The charity said, in contrast, mortgage repayments on a shared ownership home in Yorkshire would be affordable for 100 per cent of families on low or middle incomes.

It called for a major new house building programme of shared ownership properties to revolutionise home ownership for affected families. It said that a new generation of shared ownership through a nationwide mainstream market, would enable families to find an affordable home through an estate agent or high street mortgage lender.

Significantly boosting shared ownership would give families an alternative to dealing with a confusing ‘postcode lottery’ of existing small-scale schemes, or navigating the overheated private rental market.

Kay Boycott, of Shelter’s, said: “We need to see a new generation of shared ownership for ordinary families in Yorkshire who are locked out of social housing and priced out of home ownership. The reality is that soaring house prices mean that the traditional market is no longer working for ordinary people.

“Building the new shared ownership homes is the only way to give thousands of families a stake in the stable home they want at a price they can afford.”