Homeowners have been popping the champagne corks this week after The Argus revealed house prices will continue rising.

But senior councillors believe the property boom could ruin the lives of those not already on the housing ladder.

Today two prominent politicians from Brighton and Hove, where the problem is particularly acute, explain to reporter Miles Godfrey what they believe must be done to end the crisis.

 Mary Mears, the chairman of Brighton and Hove City Council's housing committee, admits not everyone will be able to own their own home.

She said: "It is true that the city's property prices have pushed traditional home ownership out of the reach of many households.

"It is also true that over time, property prices tend to increase.

"However, to say that prices will increase by 50 per cent over the next five years when the rest of the country is expecting a downturn does seem a little extreme.

"As you often find with forecasters, if you ask three of them for an opinion, you will get three answers - prices will be going up, prices will be going down or prices will stay the same.

"Putting that aside, we know that pressure on house prices is likely to remain.

"We still have the situation where the demand for homes exceeds supply and this is not expected to go away. We simply do not have the space to build the number of homes that would meet demand. We also recognise that the majority of people still aspire to home ownership. As a council we are working with housing associations, developers and other partners to increase the supply of new affordable housing.

"People often think of new social housing for rent when we talk about affordable housing. However, a large proportion of the new affordable housing is made up of homes available on a low cost home ownership part rent/part buy basis. Last year, almost half of all new affordable housing developed in Brighton and Hove was for lowcost home ownership, helping more that 160 households get their feet on the first rung of the property ladder. 2001 to 2007 saw almost 1,500 new affordable homes developed in the city - a significant achievement and one of the largest programmes in the south.

"However, to put our current efforts into context, this year alone, we have a further 800 new affordable homes in development.

"We are also successfully working with developers and our housing association partners to secure more affordable housing on all of the city's major developments. In all there are plans for another 1,700 affordable homes between 2008 and 2011. Half of these will be for rent and half for low-cost ownership.

"A range of low-cost home ownership schemes are available to people in Brighton and Hove under the HomeBuy umbrella.

"The schemes are particularly aimed at households earning from £18,000 and options are available to buy additional shares as household finances change.

"To give an idea of the costs, during 2006/07 one bed flats could be purchased from £49,000 for a 40% share, two bed homes from £51,500 for a 25 per cent share, and three bed homes from £74,000 for a 25 per cent share.

"In Brighton & Hove we have worked with our partners to identify opportunities for about 1,000 additional new homes on a shared ownership basis over the next few years."

GILL MITCHELL, the leader of the city's opposition Labour group, believes landlords should be handed grants to make run-down homes habitable again.

She said: "We are top of the league of 20 cities for quality of life but for young people who want to leave their family home and buy a place of their own and for employers who are finding it difficult to recruit and retain staff because of spiralling house prices that quality of life is under threat.

"It is no surprise that the national shortage of supply compared to demand is leading to rising prices and it is absolutely right for Gordon Brown's new Government to have put the housing crisis at the top of its agenda.

"We need more homes to meet the growing demand - houses that are well designed, environmentally sustainable and linked to the necessary infrastructure.

"While not having a direct influence on house prices, local councils can and certainly must use what powers they do have to ensure that the supply of affordable homes is maximised as part of any overall housing growth.

"The previous Labour administration of the city council implemented the 40 per cent affordable policy for new developments and offered up what suitable sites it had to enable new affordable homes to be built.

"We also kept our commitment to providing our share of the number of new homes for the region.

"With readily-available sites drying up, the city council must be quick to get existing empty homes brought back into use, whether by compulsory purchase of private, empty properties or a faster turnaround of its own void stock.

"Ways of maximising the availability of affordable public and private homes include: The use of grants to bring dilapidated empty homes back into use and reviewing the rate of council tax for second homes; Incentives for people to move to a smaller property, thus releasing a family home and the promotion of shared-ownership schemes whereby part of a home is bought and the rest rented."

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