New approach to affordable homes in the Dales

Richmondshire District Council is setting aside £30,000 to investigate whether setting up an “arms-length” local trading company could be used to provide more affordable homes and go some way towards keeping more of the area’s young families living in the district’s village communities, who otherwise find themselves priced out.

Callum McKeon, strategy and governance director at Richmondshire District Council, told the rural exodus summit held by The Yorkshire Post and the district council today, that a meeting the evening before had yielded new ideas to address a shortage of affordable homes in the area.

“We have to look at the figures (on affordable homes) and the figures are indicating that despite all our best efforts the numbers just aren’t there,” he said.

“The district council has decided that they are going to utilise their Communities Opportunity Fund and actually put £30,000 into looking at establishing a hands-on local authority trading company to deliver affordable housing.

“There are hundreds of questions associated with that idea but it may be that to start with the local authority would look at buying up vacant properties and recycling them and putting them back on the market. The other extreme is that the local authority actually takes on the role of developer and undertakes the development itself.

“The point is that it is another idea that we can put on the table. We know other local authorities are doing this so why not look at it and see if it is feasible for us in North Yorkshire.

“This is a clear commitment from the local authority to try something new.”

Part of the feasibility work will involve discussions with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) to understand what affordable housing issues exist where.

David Butterworth, chief executive of the YDNPA, said 23 per cent of the National Park’s housing stock was a second home or a holiday cottage and was not a “viable position” to secure the future of its communities, and that delivering new affordable homes was no easy matter.

“Lots of park residents and parish councils do not want housing,” he said. “So if we do some work together towards bringing schemes to market, the politicians need to face down some opposition and that is a difficult thing to do.

“This is the last chance for my generation to work towards a solution.”

The lack of affordable housing has not proven a problem for Emily and Andrew Fagg and their two young children however. BBC radio journalist, Andrew, who grew up in Gayle near Hawes, has relocated back to the Dales with his family from London where they were living in a two-bedroom apartment.

The lure of the move was the chance to take on a project to renovate an old school house in Hawes, next door to a cottage in which they would live, and bring the old building back into community use as an arts centre.

But the move has not been a simple one, with few quality jobs available for the couple.

“We still have one foot in London because my job is in London. We may have found a project here but we haven’t found a job.”

Part one of rural summit

The rural summit was called to discuss how the exodus of young families from rural communities can be addressed.

It came as The Yorkshire Post revealed how in Richmondshire alone, the proportion of people aged 19 and under had fallen from 32 per cent in 1981, to 16 per cent today.

A second summit will be held in July to share what progress has been made on a range of issues affecting the area.