The growing affordability gap faced by first-time home-buyers in Sussex is revealed today.

Figures from the Halifax show that even in the county's cheapest town, St Leonards, the average first-time buyer would have to borrow almost four times his or her salary to secure a home.

In the most expensive area - Pulborough - average buyers would have to borrow more than eight times their salary.

Major lenders are usually prepared to offer a maximum mortgage equivalent to 3.5 times a single salary or 2.75 times the combined salary for a couple.

The Annual First Time Buyer Review gives every town in the UK an "affordability index" - the multiple of his or her salary the average first-time buyer would have to borrow to buy a home.

The study shows that 23 of 25 towns in Sussex, or 92 per cent, are now deemed out of the range of the first-time buyer, who historically accounted for 50 per cent of property sales.

Peter Jones, leader of East Sussex County Council, warned that the affordability gap could lead to a catastrophic shortage of key workers such as teachers and firefighters unless public bodies worked more closely on the problem.

He said: "If you ask many young people what their aspiration is, it is to own their own home but the problem is getting their foot on to the first rung of the ladder.

"There is a real issue in trying to attract and retain decent people. For us to try to attract senior officers from anywhere other than the South-East is extremely difficult."

He said the only solution might be equity housing schemes, in which first-time buyers own a share of the value of their homes jointly with the council.

The average salary of a first-time buyer in Sussex now stands at £35,381 while the average age has gone up from 33 in 2002 to 35 in 2003.

The figures are especially alarming for key public sector workers.

Shane O'Riordain, of the Halifax, said: "First-time buyers will find the going tough again this year.

"In the South-East the recruitment and retention of key public sector workers will become more and more of a problem."

By delaying the age at which people buy a home, experts believe, the demographic profile of Sussex could be altered.

If young couples cannot afford to settle down they may delay, or even give up on, the idea of marriage and family.

Ceridwen Roberts, former director-of the Family Policy Studies Centre, said by delaying motherhood a generation of women might end up missing out altogether.

She added: "Women do know about the biological clock and that it's better to have babies when they're younger but still think it's easy to have a child at 45. It's not."

Another serious problem facing would-be homeowners is that the average property now attracts Stamp Duty at one per cent.

The £60,000 threshold has remained unchanged since 1993 despite soaring house prices. It adds around £1,900 to the cost for many first-time buyers in Brighton and Hove, often more than ten per cent of their deposit.

A spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said: "Abolishing stamp duty for first-time buyers would help those struggling to get a toe on the housing ladder.

"Equally, first-time buyers would benefit from doubling the stamp duty threshold to at least £120,000 and then for it to be kept approximately in line with house-price inflation."

Wednesday March 17, 2004