`Job and home` plan
for Lakes clearances
The Sunday Times has devoted three separate articles to what it called "the countryside housing crisis”At the same time the national housing charity Centrepoint is pushing forward with a plan to tackle a related housing crisis from a different angle..
The Sunday Times is concerned that in places like the Lake District, local people and key workers are being priced out of the market by the national demand for second home bolt holes,what MP Tim Farron(Westmorlnd and Lonsdale),pictured, calls “the Lakeland Clearances”.
Centrepoint is concerned about young people who are ready to move on but cannot afford to do so.
The Sunday Times says many MPs are pushing for restrictions on second home owners and Mr Farron has launched a petition for a change in the planning law. “We can no longer ignore the countryside housing crisis,” says the newspaper.
Centrepoint has a slogan:”A job and a home for homeless young people”. The charity has launched the biggest capital investment plan in it 50-year history: to deliver 300 new modular homes, each costing £50,000, to help young people into affordable accommodation, training and employment. No tenant will pay more than a third of his income in rent.
The second home problem has plagued the Lake District for well over half a century despite the best best efforts of local authorities and others. The problem seems to get worse by the day… “ and if we don`t step in we will see entire populations move out,” says Mr Farron.”
It seems that some new thinking is badly needed about the problem.Centrepoints`s “A Job and a Home” might well be that new thinking.
The scheme seems not expensive.It could easily be adapted for places in Cumbria to give local young people the break they need to live and work in the place where they were born.
Hopefully,”A Job and a Home” could put an end to the clearances.
Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227
