A GROUND-BREAKING scheme could help get Salisbury's struggling first-time buyers on to the housing ladder.

But we need your help in ending the property crisis in the city and surrounding villages.

The Journal has been highlighting the plight of young professionals and key workers across the district as they struggle to afford properties amid low wages and extortionate house prices.

In an attempt to address the problem, we have teamed up with Salisbury-based affordable homes company Housing Matters Wessex, which is seeking to buy plots of land across Salisbury, Amesbury and the New Forest on which to build two and three-bedroom affordable homes from about £80,000.

Plots would need to be large enough to house about 16-20 units per acre - plots such as a redundant farmyard or brownfield site, possibly with previous planning history.

Another option would be an 'exceptions' site - where land is attached to the edge of a village and cannot be used for any other form of commercial or conventional development.

Housing Matters Wessex director Carl Strachan said: "If we can establish a proven need for affordable housing on a local basis that a site can support, we can then examine the possibility of it being an 'exceptions' site and perhaps get consent for affordable housing on it."

The firm is able to build cheaply by purchasing land that has no prospect of alternative development, on deferred completion terms.

Properties are bought on a shared-ownership basis - with homeowners buying a percentage of the property and paying an additional £20 weekly rent to Housing Matters Wessex to cover remaining costs.

The company does not make a development profit but secures its money from this rental stream.

All its houses are built to standard specification in accordance with building regulations, using local builders and architects where possible.