CALL FOR ACTION TO PROTECT RURAL WAY OF LIFE (Julia Goldsworthy)

Julia Goldsworthy <info@juliagoldsworthy.org>

CALL FOR ACTION TO PROTECT RURAL WAY OF LIFE

June 22, 2009 12:00 PM

Campaign groups including the National Housing Federation have warned that a lack of affordable housing in rural areas is fuelling the decline of village life. Up to 1000 village pubs and shops are expected to close across the country over the next year, as local families are priced out of the market and demand for local services falls.

Local MP Julia Goldsworthy has called on Government Ministers to give rural areas wider planning powers, so that they can deliver affordable rural housing in the areas where it's needed most.

In areas where second home ownership is threatening a rural community's future, requiring planning permission to turn a full time home into second home will give local councils the ability to stem the loss essential services, according to Julia Goldsworthy. This is a recommendation put forward by Matthew Taylor MP, but rejected by the government, as part of his report on affordable rural housing.

Julia is also calling for the delayed Regional Spatial Strategy process to be abandoned, so that decisions on the number and location of homes needed can be made at a more local level.

Commenting, Julia said:

"The rural way of life in Cornwall is under threat, because a shortage of rural affordable housing is leaving too many local families priced out of the market. In some areas this problems is being driven by the growth of second home ownership. In others areas centralised housing targets are leaving village needs out of the equation, and are focusing housing growth entirely in more urban areas.

"The government cannot expect to sit in Whitehall and determine through a paper exercise where homes are needed across the entire South West - from Swindon to Scilly. These are decisions that are best taken locally - where the importance of supporting and sustaining rural communities is well understood.

"Without urgent action, more and more villages will become ghost villages - picture perfect places, only permanently occupied by increasingly vulnerable and isolated older people with no access to public transport or vital local services."