Average house prices in St Albans are the fastest growing in the UK - and have soared 24 percent in the last year. 

Prospective buyers can expect to pay an average £480,000 for a house in the affluent commuter city, the UK’s largest building society said.

St Albans ranked at the top of the table of "best performing" regional towns and cities, ahead of London, where Nationwide said prices are up by 21 percent on a year ago.

Official figures from HMRC have also confirmed that St Albans pays more on Stamp Duty Land Tax than all local authorities outside London.

St Albans MP Anne Main said that the data was confirmation that stamp duty is a ‘postcode tax’.

Anne said: "The hugely disproportionate way the tax hits areas like St Albans demonstrates the problems local residents are facing when they wish to move home. 

"The figures are stark. Residents in St Albans are being hammered by the tax. Local people are paying over £45m to the Exchequer - that’s over half the amount for the whole of Wales. 

"More worryingly, house prices are continuing to rise sharply, and the thresholds are remaining stagnant; making homes less affordable and discouraging people to move into an appropriately-sized house. 

"What the Government must now be concerned about is that although revenues are up sharply on last year, stamp duty receipts undershot the OBR’s [Office for Budget Responsibility] forecasts by over £225m. 

"I think the figures are suggesting that a combination of soaring prices and punitive rates of stamp duty are discouraging people from moving, and starting to hit Government revenue. 

"By reforming the way the tax is levied and changing the thresholds, potential house-buyers could be confident that moving home was not going to clobber them.’

The cheapest borough to live in London is Barking and Dagenham, where the average property costs £239,348.