Hotspot for £1m-homes plans for affordable housing

The council for a Surrey district where recent research found one in five homes is worth more than £1m is to update its affordable housing strategy.

Mole Valley has seen a 12% increase in the proportion of million-pound homes in the last six years, according to analysis by property website Rightmove published earlier this month.

Mole Valley District Council said there were 662 households on the housing register in the area.

Caroline Joseph, the councillor responsible for affordable housing, told BBC Radio Surrey the administration was "trying to put actions in place to try and assist people".

The proportion of £1m home in Elmbridge and Waverley also grew by 11% and 8% respectively, the Rightmove analysis found.

Property agent and housing market commentator Henry Pryor told BBC Radio Surrey he was "deeply, deeply embarrassed" by the inability to find a political solution to the issue in recent decades.

He says the share of homes worth more than £1m has "increased exponentially"."

"That's even with people who cannot afford to buy a house not represented in property price data," he said, as "their inability to buy or sell often is not reflected".

Mole Valley is "beautiful" and "convenient for London", Joseph said, but "that does unfortunately then result in rising house prices".

"We don't want people having to move out of the area because they can't afford to live here, especially when they have parents and family in the area," she said. "That's not helpful to anybody."

The councillor added her administration is "very aware of the situation".

The district council adopted a local plan in October setting out where and when it will allow 6,000 new homes to be built over 15 years.

In the local plan, the local authority acknowledged housing affordability was "a significant problem".

The council will discuss its updated affordable housing strategy at an upcoming committee meeting, according to Joseph.

She said: "We work very, very hard to help people. We don't want anybody to ever feel like they have no options or that they have to face homelessness."

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