HOUSING shortages in parts of the region are the worst in the country, a report reveals.

According to the National Housing Federation, one in eight – 270,000 households – in Yorkshire and Humberside are on a social housing waiting list. That compares with one in 13 nationally.

In the North-East, the number of households on the housing waiting list has risen from 62,261 in 2002 to 90,569 last year.

One in 12 households is now on a housing waiting list, affecting more than 200,000 people.

Julie Gamble, the Yorkshire manager for the National Housing Federation, said: “We have the highest proportion of households on waiting lists, house prices have risen much faster than the national average and we are building far too few social homes.”

The North-East also has one of the highest proportions of homeless people compared with other areas of the UK.

In the past five years, its social housing stock has fallen by more than in any other region and there is a higher percentage of households on waiting lists than the national average.

Susie Thompson, director of operations for Fabrick Housing Group, the parent company of Middlesbrough housing group Erimus Housing, said: “The rise in property prices has had an effect for a long time, with a significant increase in our waiting list. In the last four years, this has risen by 400 per cent.

“We have not seen an increase in homelessness, but repossessions may not have made their way through the system yet.”

However despite the social housing problems, in the report Oxford Economics forecast house prices will continue to fall next year, before they start to recover in 2010.

David Orr, the chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: “Our report shows that despite concerns about the current housing market downturn, house prices will increase substantially over the mid to long term.

“Demand for housing is going up, while the supply of new homes is going down.

This means that as soon as the economic outlook improves, house prices will resume their previous upward trajectory.”

Property meltdown?

● House prices are 8.2 times the average household income in the North-East.

● The average house price in the North-East in 2013 will be £163,600, more than 15 per cent higher than last year.

● The National Housing Association says the North- East needs about 1,300 new social homes every year.

● More than 270,000 households are on housing waiting lists in Yorkshire and Humberside.

● 8,220 families were made homeless in Yorkshire and Humberside last year.

● The average house price in Yorkshire and Humberside in 2013 will be £188,800, more than 20 per cent higher than today.