A MASS building programme of social housing is desperately needed, campaigners urged today after new figures showed that house prices were “rocketing” and reaching unaffordable levels.

Mortgage lender Halifax said that a “typical” UK home now costs 7.1 times annual average earnings.

It estimated that the “average earnings” of a full-time worker are £39,402, and the average house price is £239,281 — up 16.8 per cent since the start of the pandemic in 2020.