A new report says Gloucester is one the least affordable cities in which to live in the country.

Gloucester just scrapes into 20th place in the least affordable cities list produced by Lloyds Bank.

It says the average house price in the city is £213,473 compared to £147,093 in 2012 - a rise of 45 per cent.

Gloucester comes eighth in the list of the 10 UK cities with the highest house price growth.

Oxford is the UK's least affordable city with the average house price at £385,372 which is nearly 11 times annual gross average earnings in the city (£36,033)

The report says over the past five years the average UK city house price has risen by 32 per cent from £169,966 to its highest ever level of £224,926 this year.

But in comparison, annual average city earnings have risen by only seven per cent to £32,796. As a result average affordability in the nation's cities has worsened with house prices rising as a multiple of average annual earnings from 5.5 to 6.9.

Andy Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgage products director, said: "City living is becoming increasingly expensive with average house prices at least ten times average annual earnings in five of the UK's cities.

"Affordability levels have worsened for four consecutive years as average city house prices continue to rise more steeply than average wage growth."