'Firemen commuting to South-East'

Firefighters are commuting hundreds of miles to work, from as far afield as County Durham, Norfolk and Merseyside because they cannot afford homes in the South-East, it was claimed today.

Staff based in Reading are being forced to make the daily trek, it was claimed, because their salaries cannot keep pace with the cost of mortgages and rents.

Joyce Markham, chief executive of Reading council, said firefighters' shifts have been altered to enable crews to commute. Almost one in three firefighters lived outside the area. She said staff shortages in other areas are also so acute that one in two job vacancies for teachers, social workers and occupational therapists are having to be re-advertised.

"Public transport in Reading is close to collapse," Ms Markham said. "We cannot recruit enough bus drivers to keep the buses on the road."

Neale Coleman, Ken Livingstone's housing adviser told a central London conference on the housing crisis that more affordable rented property was required not just for key workers, but the record 50,000 households living in temporary accommodation in the capital.

Sally Keeble, junior housing minister, said: "Simply increasing public sector housing is missing the point. We need imaginative new schemes which widen access to lower-cost housing."

Yesterday it emerged housebuilding in London, and the provision of affordable homes, was increasing. In nearly half the London boroughs the level of affordable homes required on new developments ranges from 25 per cent to 53 per cent.