Full Report

Material Realities - Housing

Unless young people can afford to live locally, they will be unable to work locally, draining the Northern Fells of those that are young and economically active. It is not until they approach their mid-twenties that young people begin to consider setting up their own home. Of that age group, this research identified seven young people who worked in the area and wanted to set up their own home in the Northern Fells. One individual had been forced to buy a property outside of the Northern Fells despite both she and her partner working in the area. Six others were keen to move out of their parental home but were stuck where they were because of the lack of affordable locally based accommodation. There will be others in a similar situation soon but whilst they are at school, college or in training they are content to live with their parents.

Young people who are forced to continue living with their parents and cannot afford to set up their own home are effectively homeless. The cost of buying a house in the Northern Fells is a big frustration. Over the period of 1996-2002 the average percentage increase in median house price in Eden District was almost 120% and over 80% for Allerdale District (Countryside Agency, 2003).

Young people are beginning to take action themselves. A group of ten young people have approached one of the parish councils in the Northern Fells about the issue of affordable housing. One young person has publicised the problems they face in the Northern Fells through speaking out on Radio Cumbria and Radio 4. There are potential solutions to the lack of affordable housing in the Northern Fells but communities (in partnership with Local Authorities and others) must demonstrate need. This research contributes to the evidence of need for affordable housing for young people in the Northern Fells.

6.1 Cost of housing

6.1.1. Buying a house

Everyone, including members of the younger age group, was aware of substantial increases in the cost of housing in the Northern Fells. Many young people were resentful of the increases in second residence/holiday accommodation in the Northern Fells which have contributed to local house price increases. In Caldbeck parish 16 out of a total of 333 dwellings are second residence/holiday accommodation3. In Ireby and Uldale parish 32 out of 231 dwellings are second residence/holiday accommodation (neighbourhood statistics.gov.uk).

We would have stayed in Caldbeck or the surrounding area but the housing prices are ridiculous so we can’t. Nor can any first time buyer unless they won the Lottery (Joby, 18-24 age group)

Similarly, a group of young men said:

There’s no encouragement for us lot to, helping us lot to buy houses round here to stay here

It’s just all. Everyone just comes in, like…. buying holiday homes from down south and just like come up for like two or three weeks of the year and then gan back down again and they just sit empty all the time

So you think there’s gonna be a problem when you want to move and get houses round here?

Yeah

Aye there will

There’s a problem now
(young men, 18-24 age group)

Again, when asked about the most significant problem they faced a group of young women said:

Houses. That is the main thing, houses

Because people that have lived here have had to move into Carlisle which they don't want to. They've grown up here all their lives and yet they can't afford round here so they've had to move into Carlisle.

We're gonna be like all bumped out (young women, 18-24 age group)

6.1.2. Renting a house

Renting a property in the Northern Fells was not a popular option for most young people. Privately renting lacked any sense of permanency or stability and young people felt that their payments would contribute to someone else’s future and not their own:

The way you can stay here is to rent. So it’s fine if you want to pay somebody else’s mortgage but we didn’t (Joby, 18-24 year group)

Privately renting a house in the Northern Fells was also deemed expensive as result of the tourist trade and competition for properties at peak times of the year:

(Renting is) even higher…we might as well live at home

Yeah, because they know that people have got to come here for like holidays they can charge excessive amounts so it's not fair on us. Unless we live in a tent – on the village green! (Emma and Jane, 17-24 age group)

Renting a property owned by a Housing Association (HA) was similarly neither a popular option nor a realistic one given the scarce number of properties owned by HAs in the Northern Fells. Locating the few dwellings owned by Housing Associations in the Northern Fells was a difficult task given that different HAs own different properties in the area. Home Housing Association and Eden Housing Association are the two key organisations with properties in the area. Home Housing Association operates in Allerdale District, but it owns properties beyond the District Council boundaries. Similarly, the boundaries within which Eden Housing Association operate are also broader than the District Council boundaries. The list of properties owned in the Northern Fells by Home Housing Association include eight properties in Caldbeck (since 1994), eight in Bolton Low Houses (since 1967) and one property in Rosley (since 1944). Eden Housing Association owns three houses and two flats in Hesket Newmarket. Tenants are allowed to remain in a HA owned property for as long as they choose. The property in Rosley, for example, has had the same tenant for the past forty years. This and their scarcity mean that few HA properties are available for young people. Many young people were aware of properties owned by Housing Associations in the area but recognised their scarcity and perceived their needs to be low priority compared to those of others:

you've got to have, like, special things and maybes parents with children or on income support or something to live in those houses (Emma, 18-24 age group)

In many ways, those young people in the Northern Fells who were employed but on low wage rates, which meant that they could not afford to buy a house in the area, were more excluded from affordable housing than those who were not wage earners.

6.2 Obstacles to affordable accommodation

6.2.1 Planning regulations

Planning regulations were perceived by young people as an obstacle to affordable accommodation:

You can’t get planning permission in and around the village. Just because of the planning regulations in the village and there’s a couple in the village who’ve been trying in the last four years to try and build a house, and their family live here. And the planning board said that they couldn’t build it because the retail value was going to be over £70 000. Well, there’s not one house in Caldbeck that’s less than £70 000. There was a barn in Hesket Newmarket that was for sale to convert into a one bedroom house and that was for sale for over that amount so how on earth a house can be any less. And also the house prices as well, the people that are going to be able to buy them are either retired or they buy it as a holiday home and you just can’t compete with that so unless you want to rent there really is no other way. There’s no affordable houses for young people (Joby, 18-24 age group)

Similarly, Jason said:

You can’t even build them because there’s that many like planning regulations and in a National Park. It’s just that hard to like get a bit of land and even build one as well (Jason, 18-24 age group)

6.2.2 Local support

Individuals also perceived local support for affordable accommodation for young people to be lacking:

There was a house came up in Welton I was going to buy with my brother but it ended up going for such a silly price that it was just not possible to buy. But there was talk of somebody building some low cost houses in Welton or trying to get planning permission but that seemingly hasn't come out because, one, the neighbours didn't approve of it being low cost housing and being like youngsters living in the village: because there's quite a few older people living in the village, they think that we were like invading in their space really

I think a lot of local people have moved up here, you know, if they've been somewhere else or people have retired; they want the quality of life that comes with living in a small village so they want, you know, nice little quiet walks and

They don't want

They don't want young people (young women, aged 18-24 age group)

6.3 Consequences of not accommodating young people

Many local people, however, were aware of the consequences of young people not affording to buy local properties:

When I was 20 I wasn’t really interested in housing, it wasn’t something I thought about or talked about or anything but it is important for the community if young people don’t come back. Assuming that a significant number go away and don’t come back and live here and work here then the knock on effects are going to be huge. There won’t be kids in the schools, there won’t be people buying things from the local shop, you are going to end up with people who can afford the expensive housing which is going to be retired people and holiday homes and dead communities. Well not dead communities but certainly different communities (Health practitioner, Northern Fells).