The South West is now the hardest region in which to buy a property outside of London, according to new research.

The findings from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation cast doubt on government plans to ease affordability by building more homes in the South East.

The survey finds that counties such as Somerset, Cornwall and Devon are now in as much need as Surrey and Kent.

Deputy prime minister John Prescott wants to massively increase the supply of housing around the Capital by building tens of thousands of properties in coming years.

But while London remains the most expensive area of the country and the most difficult to get a mortgage for, the JRF comparison of average incomes and average house prices now puts the South West in a worse position than traditional hotspots such as Oxford, Brighton and the commuter belt in the South East.

Report author Steve Wilcox of the University of York said that the findings "reinforce the case for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to review its current plans to concentrate increased funding for affordable housing in London and the wider South East".

A combination of low wages and high demand for second homes in attractive areas has pushed the ratio of housing costs to incomes in the South West to 4.66 to one.

This compares with 4.69 to one in London and 4.61 in the South East, while the ratio most mortgage lenders are prepared to provide is just 3.5 times joint household incomes.

The South West also tops the table in having the individual areas with the highest ratios, with West Somerset at 6.80 to one, Christchurch at 6.71 and North Cornwall at 6.54.

Relative to salaries, the most expensive area in London is Westminster at 6.17 to one and in the South East, Chichester at 6.12.

Although average house prices in the South East, at £183,175, are 21 per cent higher than in the South West (£151,147), the proportionate difference in incomes is even greater.

Working households in the South West earn an average £32,444 compared to £39,734 in the South East.

'Ghost villages'

North Cornwall MP Paul Tyler told ePolitix.com second home owners in his constituency are "killing off" the local community. "Ghost villages are now becoming a real problem," he said.

"The empty homes problem is becoming a very real headache, properties that have been taken out of the local housing stock and only used for a very short time of the year."

But the Liberal Democrat MP said local and central government need to do more to ensure houses are set aside for poorer families, rather than simply build more.

"It is not so much building here, it is making sure that the houses that are built are available to local people," he said.

"When John Prescott was down here at the time of the August floods, I made this point very strongly to him and he has responded.

"To take the point of the floods, the sort of people who have to be on-call very quickly, the RNLI, the coast guard, for life saving activity of various sorts, have no chance now of living anywhere near the coast."

However he resisted calls for council tax or stamp duty to be increased on holiday homes.

"The sort of people who can afford a second home in Cornwall or coastal villages can easily afford paying 200, 300 per cent council tax," Tyler said.