GOVERNMENT and business put their heads together yesterday to tackle a city's affordable housing concerns.

Housing Minister IainWright was joined by senior housing figures at a seminar organised by Durham City MP Roberta Blackman-Woods.

Figures show that in the past five years, house prices in the North-East have risen faster than in any other region, and that trend is expected to continue.

Dr Blackman-Woods, who has pushed for more affordable homes to be built in Durham, said: "The Government is very keen that we move the affordable housing agenda forward, and not only affordable housing, but affordable and sustainable housing.

"What has come out of this symposium is the need to look at demonstration projects to see how we finance the housing stock."

The half-day meeting, held in County Hall, Durham, was chaired by David Butler, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Diana Pearce, who deals with Durham issues for Government Office North-East, said: "There is a growing problem with affordable housing hitting the area.

"We need to understand what's causing that, what impact it's having and what needs to be done.

"We need a 25 per cent increase in new home building, and we need to ask: Are builders and local authorities ready for that?"

The North-East Regional Spatial Strategy, a Government planning blueprint for the region covering the next 15 years, allows for 128,000 extra houses to be built in the region.

But Mrs Pearce said more would be built if needed.

"These are moving targets and we are continually monitoring them. If we find that the market in one area has soaked up all its allocation, we will have another look," she said.

Martin Knowles, chief executive of Three Rivers Housing, spoke about several pioneering building projects his company is involved with.

He said: "In the past five years, house prices have doubled and outstripped earnings by five times. That's made it massively unaffordable for large numbers of people.

"The meeting has been immensely helpful. The Government has announced a large increase in funding for social housing, and we are building the case for the North-East getting its share."

City of Durham

statistics

Average house price: 159,750

Average income: 18,574

Income needed for a mortgage: 43,361

Source: Home Truths, National Housing Federation north east