Is it becoming too expensive to live in west Dorset? With the price of an average house in the area rising by nine per cent – higher than the national average rate – it has been claimed the cost of housing is a ‘fraught situation’, with families being priced out of the area.

The price of an average house in west Dorset stood at £290,670 in December 2017 – more than 13 times the average salary of £22k – compared to £266,587 in December 2016, a price increase of nine per cent.

Figures released by the Land Registry show that nationally, an average house would have set buyers back £234,794 in December 2017, compared to £220,361 the previous year – an increase of 6.5 per cent.

Monica King is one of the driving forces behind Bridport Cohousing, a community-led housing group, and says house prices have ‘escalated’ in the area.

The group recently celebrated an agreement being reached allowing it to build 34 affordable, sustainable homes near Bridport Hospital in North Allington.

The homes will be sold at 80 per cent of open market value, but Ms King says even that remains too expensive for some.

“We expect our prices to go up, just like everyone elses,” she said.

“The problem was not as extreme when we started nine years ago, but it has escalated.

“Over time it has become a big problem and what are classed as ‘affordable’ homes are not truly affordable to many people.

“It’s a fraught situation. It gets harder and harder as wages remain low and money is devalued.

“A lot of people can’t afford the 80 per cent. It’s such a big issue here.”

Several Community Land Trusts (CLTs), run by local people to provide assets and services of local benefit - including affordable housing, have been set up in in west Dorset and include Bridport and Lyme Regis.

Locals-only affordable homes are being built in Lyme Regis in a £2m project aiming to alleviate the housing crisis.

Landowner and entrepreneur David Garman sold a one-acre plot of land to Lyme Regis CLT for a nominal cost.

Keith Jenkin, chairman of Lyme Regis CLT, said: “You have expensive house prices and then you have a low wage structure at the other end – the two don’t meet. House prices are massive here – Lyme is the fifth most expensive along the south coast.”

Mr Jenkin says locals are being left behind as generations are being priced out of the area.

“It’s already happening here,” he said. “It’s an impossible situation. When developers have to build a percentage of affordable housing – what is affordable housing?

“That is the big problem.”

West Dorset District Councillor Timothy Yarker, spokesman for housing, says the problems faced by west Dorset are ‘not unique’ to the area but follow a national trend.

“It’s a systemic national problem which has being caused by financial drivers,” he said.

“Borrowing money became cheap which pushed house prices up. It’s a continuing trend.”

Cllr Yarker says house prices are affected by the developers’ need to sell them.

“That’s the conundrum,” he said. “There is a lot to be done and government targets are part of that.”

An Accelerating Homebuilding Programme – a partnership between North Dorset District Council, Weymouth and Portland Borough and WDDC – will see 20,000 additional homes built by 2033 – with 320 affordable houses to be built in west Dorset in the next five to seven years.

“It is a complex issue and we are trying to do better,” said Cllr Yarker.