House prices in the region soar

The average house price in the South West is now £178,500

The cost of buying a house in the South West has gone up four times more than the average wage, according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

It found that in the South West in 1997 the average house cost around £60,000, equivalent to nearly four times greater than the then average wage of £15,873.

But since then house prices have risen to an average of £178,500, while the average wage is now only £22,453.

In Cornwall prices have risen five and a half times faster than pay.

The near 200% rise in house prices means that it now takes just under eight years of a worker's wage to buy an average-priced house in the region.

The TUC obtained the figures from the government's communities website.