The frustrating wait for a home

By Sean Coughlan
BBC News Online education staff

Public sector workers are to receive support to make housing affordable

"It is extremely hard to be in my mid-thirties and still to be living in a single rented room," says Berta Miguez.

Ms Miguez is an assistant tutor in a London further education college - and even though she has taken on extra work she cannot afford to buy a flat.

To tackle such housing problems the government has announced extra subsidies for public sector workers.

In high-cost areas even the cheapest housing can be unaffordable to staff in education and health services.

Ms Miguez works at the College of North West London in the Willesden area - and even though she has been looking for more than a year, she has been unable to find a flat she can afford to buy.

'Stressful'

To supplement her full-time income of £23,000 per year, she has been working extra teaching hours - sometimes working 12 hours a day.

John Prescott announces affordable houses for key workers

And even with these long hours - and even in a part of London that is far from the most expensive - she still finds that the cost of housing is out of her reach.

Every weekend she looks on the internet to see if she can find anywhere that looks that it might be in her price range - but so far she says it has been nothing but frustration.

"It is stressful. When I left university, I didn't expect after all this time to be in such a position. It's fine when you're a student, but later you want independence.

"I live a simple life - I don't spend much money on going out or buying designer clothes - and still I can't save enough."

The biggest mortgage that Ms Miguez has been offered is £89,000 - which is already above the usual borrowing levels - but even this is not enough to get onto the housing ladder.

So she says that she will soon face a choice in whether to stay in the education service - or whether she will be forced to leave London and find a better quality of life elsewhere.

And she is now looking to see if the government's scheme - which has been extended to further education staff - will offer her any support. If it doesn't, she says there are some hard decisions ahead.