Mike Fennell The Politics Show South West

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Average house prices in Devon are 10 times local wages

Who are you going to call when it comes to tackling the problem of the South West's ghost villages, as Cornish Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor described them.

That is those communities blighted by the impact of second homes.

The Affordable Rural Housing Commission has answered that call with a report looking at all the issues.

The suggestion that a local impact tax on second homes should be considered grabbed the headlines, but it also called for enhanced planning powers, more affordable homes to be built and more money.

Paradise for those that can afford it - a paradox for those that cannot.

For many born and bred in Salcombe, living there is increasingly not an option.

No less than 40% of properties in Salcombe are second homes.

Nowhere is the need for affordable housing more acute.

New development

It is hoped that a new development will alleviate the problem.

Of the 43 properties to be built more than three quarters are for local people, who simply cannot afford a home of their own.

Naomi Langdon was caught in that trap in her home village of South Brent.

She and her partner were living with her parents: "We were quite desperate really and very unhappy.

"Obviously we were sharing one bedroom and we had no privacy," she said.

But thanks to an affordable housing scheme they were given the key to the door of their own home.

"I feel great now," she continued.

"Originally we asked for a two-bedroom which they turned us down.

"We thought we had missed the boat but in January 2006 they did contact us and say we can offer you a three-bedroom, if you are still interested.

So it was a double whammy."

Call for affordable homes

This week the Affordable Rural Housing Commission made detailed recommendations aimed at ensuring more developments like the one that enabled Naomi to get on the housing ladder.

The Commission's report called for 11,000 affordable new homes to be built each year.

Alan Robinson, the Strategic Operations Manager for South Hams district council welcomed the report.

"The really good news from our point of view is that it puts rural affordable housing high up on the national agenda and hopefully it will give Government the opportunity to look at the recommendations and to start to really address the problems that residents of the South Hams are actually facing on a daily basis."

Best practice

The report cited a development at East Allington as best practice.

One third of the homes are being sold at market value, two thirds are affordable housing aimed at local residents, either for rent or shared ownership.

David Norman from the Tor Homes Housing Association explained how it helped people trying to get a foot on the housing ladder.

"They are fairly low-cost, in the region of �140,000 to �160,000 to start with, but we sell them on shared ownership terms where people can part-buy and part rent and then they buy more shares as their circumstances change in the future and that makes the overall cost of ownership about two thirds of what it would be if they had bought their homes on the open market."

Regional problem

Its not just the South Hams.

In North Devon the average property price five years ago was �83,000. In 2006 it is almost �220,000.

And in Torridge it is estimated that 500 affordable new homes are needed every year.

Currently they are managing only 12.

The situation was not helped when plans for a much lauded social housing development in High Bickington were turned down because they breached the district plan, which discourages development outside village boundaries.

David Brown, the chairman of the Trust behind the development said the decision beggared belief.

"The day before we got the decision Ruth Kelly had stood and said affordable housing was her number one priority and yet here we are offering to build 36 affordable homes in this area and share them with our neighbouring villages and it is turned down."

Blow to locals

The decision came as a real blow to newly wed Seb Cummings who was hoping to move out of his parents home in the village.

"It really was our own and only opportunity in many ways for the foreseeable future.

"The prospect of being able to raise a family in this village, this community where I have grown up, which is near both our families that is not a realistic option for us now."

However if the Affordable Rural Housing Commission's recommendations were adopted there might be a change of heart, according to one its members, David Fursdon.

"I think we have made recommendations about the planning inspectors and how they should buy into the whole process and I think we have a fair chance that in the future inspectors are actually going to have a different view, but I can't absolutely guarantee it."

The Government has said it will look carefully at the Commission's recommendations about the location of new social housing as part of its Spending Review

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