Many will have suspected it for a long time, but it is now as official as it is likely to get: Oxford has become the UK’s least affordable city.

The calculation is based on the fact that the average house price is now a whopping 15 times bigger than average earnings in the city – while at the same time Oxford apparently has the sixth highest growing population in the UK (in percentage terms at least).

All these facts are in the Cities Outlook 2013 report, sponsored by the Local Government Association, and a report taken seriously by the Government. While highlighting Oxford as a UK economic powerhouse, the report’s authors warns that Oxford’s very prosperity could be threatened by the chronic shortage of housing. Yet its recommendation that Oxford should be helped by the Get Britain Building fund would only be of very limited use here. The £570m fund is focused on helping with stalled developments, where there is planning consent but insufficient money to complete new homes.

The problem in Oxford is not so much funding as shortage of brownfield sites for affordable homes. The report’s call for a relaxation of Government policies to allow sites to be considered on some Green Belt land, will be warmly welcomed by Oxford City Council, as it continues to press for new homes on land south of Grenoble Road. This remains a feasible solution, once the Barton West development is completed. Sadly it lies on South Oxfordshire District Council’s side of the boundary. Those who want to see more localism should sometimes be careful what they wish for, as Oxford’s housing problems has become a national issue.