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Affordable Housing Crisis

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Written by Doug Young

 

When local communities die Dartmoor dies with them. Local families and local work create Dartmoor as much as the tors and ravens. But people need a place to live; a house they can afford.

New research from the Countryside Alliance spotlights the dearth of affordable rural housing. Low rural wages make buying property a challenge. House prices in the countryside average five times rural earnings. First time buyers make up only 27 per cent of all buyers compared to 45 per cent in urban areas. Yet local authorities plan to build only 29 per cent of needed affordable housing.

The Alliance sees this situation as a clear threat to rural life. As local people move away to cheaper housing businesses lose their customer base, jobs move to where people live and schools and services shrink and shut down. More travel equals more environmental damage, crowded roads and dormitory villages.

‘...if the rural need for affordable housing is not addressed, and urgently, many of those communities upon which our countryside depends will shrivel and die.’ - Alice Barnard, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance

In Dartmoor the situation is even worse. Average house prices are well above the national average. Cheaper properties are a much smaller proportion of the housing stock than nationally. Even buying a terraced house on Dartmoor needs an income of around £40,000 (DNPA 2010). Unaffordable for most - only a quarter of Dartmoor folk have an income above this figure.

Communities in the British countryside are facing a growing crisis. The Alliance’s research underlines its urgency for Dartmoor.

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