Young people 'forced out of rural housing market'

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 09:41:31 GMT

Young people are being increasingly forced out of the housing market in rural areas of the UK due to high house prices, one expert has commented.

Martin Collett, operations director for the English Rural Housing Association, says that as a result of this, local services in the countryside are suffering because they are not supported by younger members of the community.

He states that in order to tackle this issue, there needs to be greater funding to provide more affordable housing in rural areas.

Mr Collett's comments come in response to a recent report from the Commission for Rural Communities, which found that shortages in the housing sector are increasingly being seen to drive young people away from rural communities.

Dr Stuart Burgess, the government's rural advocate, proposed that there needs to be a greater provision for affordable housing in countryside locations, while mobile phone coverage and broadband services need to be greatly improved.

According to the National Housing Federation, by the year 2020, pensioners will make up one in four of the rural population.

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