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The Shelter Roof Affordability Index assesses housing affordability by comparing mortgage costs against working household incomes, and highlights the gap between what people can afford and the growing cost of housing.

The average house price for first time buyers in the UK rocketed to £159,494 in 2007, compared with £52,674 in 1997.

The figure is even higher in London with first time buyers facing a 250 per cent rise to reach an average house price of almost £260,000.

This means that, as a national average, it is now 78 per cent harder for first time buyers to secure a home than it was 10 years ago, with house hunters in every English region being hammered by spiralling housing costs.

Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson said: "These new figures show in full the true and worsening situation first time buyers find themselves in. Every year the gulf between what first time buyers can afford and the cost of housing is widening.

"Despite falling house prices, many lenders are increasing their mortgage rates, making an already desperate situation worse. It means there is a generation of young people and young families being locked out of the housing market without a hope of ever sharing in the asset wealth of the generation before."