Croydon South MP Chris Philp was accused of “failing to understand” the difficulties of getting onto the property ladder after he suggested saving for a £10,000 deposit is affordable.

Speaking yesterday during a House of Commons debate on the Government’s controversial housing bill, Mr Philp defended the high cost of the Governments proposed ‘starter homes’.

The scheme will see affordable rented homes replaced with £450,000 homes, according to housing charity Shelter.

Mr Philp said: “That is a ceiling; it is a maximum. My borough, the London Borough of Croydon, is the largest borough by population. The average starter home there will cost £190,000.

“That means that, with help to buy, a deposit of £10,000 will secure a home, and a couple earning £22,500 each will be able to afford to service the mortgage on it.”

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But Dan Wilson Craw, policy manager for Generation Rent, said: “He fails to understand how hard it is to save when you are earning an ordinary wage in London and paying market rent.

“To save £5,000 you would have to be able to have an extra £100 every month and that would take you five years.

“And even after five years, with the way house prices are going up especially in places like Croydon, that price is just going to escalate.”

Mr Craw said there was “not really anything in the housing bill that is going to make housing affordable for private renters in Croydon”, adding: “In London it is just so difficult to actually do that [buy your own home] because house prices are so high, to actually be able to afford a £10,000 deposit with no help from family it is really difficult.”

Yesterday insurance firm Legal and General (L&G) revealed lending from the ‘bank of Mum and Dad’ to get on the UK property ladder will hit £5bn this year.

L&G said parents will help finance 25 per cent of all mortgage transactions this year, an average of about £17,500.

Thirty-two per cent of home owners under 35 in London got help from friends and family to buy the home they live in.

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To add to the woes of those trying to get onto the Croydon property ladder, figures from the Land Registry last month revealed house prices in the borough have risen 14.7 per cent in the 12 months to February, taking the average cost of a house to £370,766.

House price rises have hit the youngest generation the hardest with home ownership among 25 to 34-year-olds plummeting 23 per cent from 1991 to 2011/12, according to L&G.

Cllr Alison Butler, Croydon’s cabinet member for homes, regeneration and planning, said: “Many people in the past would have rented while they saved their money for a deposit on a mortgage, you can no longer do that because rent is so high.

“You haven’t got that middle opportunity of saving while you rent any longer.

“Now more than ever, it is impossible – people are struggling to pay their rent let alone to put away extra money.”

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Mr Philp, a co-founder and partner of property development firm Pluto Finance, rubbished the claims he does not understand the difficulties facing first home buyers.

He said: “That is obviously rubbish. No one says it is easy, the average age of a first time buyer these days is about 30 so people have 10 years to save £5,000.

“Some people can save more than that, some people get help from their parents, I’m not saying it easy for everybody. £22,000 a year, per person is less than the average salary in Croydon so it is not as if it is a ludicrously high salary.

“House prices are going up, it is definitely a problem, but the starter homes initiative is designed to help that.”