ONE of the country's leading housing experts has spoken to Oxford housing chiefs about the growing affordability crisis for first-time buyers.

Speaking at the Oxford Citizens' Housing Association annual meeting, at the Cowley HQ of Oxfam, Prof John Hills, who led a major Government review of the social housing sector, told guests "radical action" was now needed to tackle the issue.

Prof Hills, professor of social policy and director of the Research Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, told guests, who included city council and housing organisation leaders, that the average first-time buyer deposit, financed by inherited money, was now £32,000.

He said: "Rising house prices have meant that fewer and fewer people can afford to become owner occupiers.

"The proportion of first-time buyers needing financial help to get on the housing ladder has increased from 10 per cent in 1997 to 50 per cent in 2006."

He added: "We are beginning to see the formation of a circuit as three quarters of all 70-plus-year-olds are now owner occupiers.

"As they die, the money from their property filters down to help grandchildren buy a first home.

"However, if you come from a long line of tenants you will not be getting that inheritance.

"One radical way around this may be to encourage housing associations to introduce equity share schemes for tenants so that they can begin to own their own home and we can begin to reduce the wealth gap.

"Social landlords need to go the extra mile to help people to build their lives and build their livelihoods."

OCHA chief executive Jonathan Higgs added: "With 16,000 people on the housing waiting lists in the county we can see a growing divide between those that can afford owner occupation and those that can't. There are some provocative ideas here that everyone concerned with giving people a decent home should look at very seriously."