More than 180,000 families are on housing waiting lists in the South West, with new homes being built at too slow a rate to cope.

Opposition MPs warned of the worst housing crisis in a generation – while ministers rushed out a series of announcements designed to show they are taking action.

New figures show there are 182,501 households on waiting lists – at a time when only 5,021 social properties were completed. And it is not just social housing caught in the perfect storm, with wages lagging well behind the costs of buying a home. There were more than 11,000 people waiting in Bristol, where just 346 homes were finished, and almost 21,000 in Somerset, with 918 completions.

North Somerset saw almost 8,000 on the waiting list, with just 42 social houses completed, while the figures in Bath & North East Somerset were 10,344 and 99.

The problems families have over housing are shown by the fact that average house prices in the region are £228,940, yet a typical income is £19,713.

That means the South West’s property price to income ration is 11.6, above the average of England of 11.2.

And it is even worse in the some parts of the West, including 14.1 in Bath & North East Somerset, 13.5 in Dorset, 12.1 in Wiltshire and 11.5 in Gloucestershire. In the leafy Cotswolds, a honey pot for wealthy celebrities, the average property price is over £350,000, and the ratio is 19.2, the second highest outside London.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps yesterday pledged to use taxpayers’ money to restart work at sites with planning permission for homes, but which have stalled. He promised money for four West projects, with a total of 435 new homes, among 18 across England that will deliver 1,301 properties, although it is unclear how much each scheme will get.

They include Wapping Wharf in Bristol, where 175 homes behind the new M Shed museum were put on hold in the 2008 economic crash, and 140 at the former RAF Locking in Weston-super-Mare.

The other two projects which will get a share of £46million from the Get Britain Building fund are Bath Western Riverside, with 81 homes, and Osprey Quay, Portland, with 39.

Mr Shapps said: “With the Prime Minister putting housing centre stage on the road to economic recovery, I am determined that we shall not repeat these mistakes of the past.”

He also confirmed how much councils will get from the New Homes Bonus, which rewards them for the number of new homes built.

But Labour spokesman Jack Dromey said that was a re-announcement from two months ago, and accused the Government of “recycling” policies. He said nationally almost two million people were languishing on council house waiting lists, while fewer than 45,000 new homes were being built each year.

“Britain now has the worst housing crisis in a generation,” he warned. “The Government cut £4 billion from investment in housing, leading to a 99 per cent collapse in the building of affordable homes, the biggest is history. Housebuilding is down, homelessness is up, we have a mortgage market where people can’t get mortgages and rents are soaring in the private rented sector.

“That’s why Labour has proposed a tax on bank bonuses to build an additional 25,000 affordable homes, putting unemployed building workers back to work and creating apprenticeships for the young.”

Mr Dromey said Mr Shapps was out of touch.

“Rather than tackling this crisis, Grant Shapps chooses to recycle and re-announce policies as if that alone builds houses. If we had a home for every press statement by the Housing Minister we would not be facing the biggest housing crisis in a generation.”