The high cost of housing is forcing a generation of young people out of their home town.

That is the view of a couple who were hoping to buy one of developer Linden Homes' new houses at the former Pauls Malt site in Wallingford - only to be deterred by the prices.

Damien Edwards, 23, and his fiancee Michelle Elkins, 20, are now resigned to buying their first home in Didcot, where prices are lower.

Mr Edwards, of St John's Road, and Miss Elkins, earn nearly £40,000 between them, but they feel squeezed out of the local property market.

He said: "There should be more affordable housing. Now we are having to look in Didcot, like many of our friends."

The couple's plight highlights the broader housing crisis facing the area. A recent survey by South Oxfordshire District Council revealed an extra 4,500 affordable homes were needed. However, Linden Homes' project will provide just 35 such properties.

Vale Housing Association has received £1.8m in grants from the district council and the Housing Corporation - which oversees housing associations - to buy the 35 homes.

A spokesman for Vale Housing Association declined to comment.

Sally Kelsall, the district council's housing development officer, said cheaper housing was urgently needed.

She added: "In the future, we may ask developers to provide up to 40 per cent of new sites as affordable housing."