FEARS that Bournemouth will "lose a generation" if it doesn't create more affordable homes have prompted the council to draw up an ambitious action plan.

With the average house price in Bournemouth now approximately 12 times the average annual income, the new housing strategy aims to create an additional 400 affordable units a year between now and 2011.

This is a big increase on the 150 completed in 2006/7 but far less than the annual figure of 3,015 suggested by a housing needs survey in 2007.

In a bid to meet this new target, councillors have approved plans to hand over borough-owned land to affordable housing providers either for free or substantially reduced.

They will also consider whether the council could step in and build affordable homes itself and a dedicated officer is being recruited to help bring some of Bournemouth's 2,022 empty homes back into use.

The strategy will also have massive implications for property developers.

Currently, developers only have to provide affordable housing when they build 15 or more homes.

But around 95 per cent of the planning permissions granted by Bournemouth council are for 14 homes or less so it looks likely that either this threshold will be lowered or a sliding scale will be put in place.

Cllr Peter Charon, cabinet member for housing and procurement, said: "There is a major affordability issue for Bournemouth, ranked the 15th least affordable place out of 407 areas nationally.

"I am determined that we tackle this so that those born and bred in our town can afford to live here and those with talent can come here.

"We must increase the supply of affordable housing and improve the standard of the housing that people are currently living in.

"With over 6,000 households on our housing register, we have set a challenging target to deliver 1,200 new affordable homes during the next three years, a combination of social housing, private rented homes and a new affordable housing planning policy."

And Cllr John Beesley, deputy leader of the council, said: "Affordable housing is one of the key council priorities and by that, I mean providing housing that is affordable to first-time buyers.

"If we don't tackle this, we are going to be left without a middle generation and that is not right."