Affordable Housing

Affordable Housing at Crosby Ravensworth

In many Cumbrian villages, residents cannot afford to buy or rent homes, so they leave, taking their families and their businesses with them. As a result, shops, pubs, and primary schools close.  And villages become increasingly reserves for the elderly, whose children and grandchildren live in distant towns. We talk about this all the time. But what do we do about it? How do we produce houses which the young can afford to rent or buy? The answer can’t be simply to allow developers to swamp villages by building a hundred full-price houses to subsidise a dozen affordable homes, nor to build new estates of social houses in which locals are reluctant to live. Is it possible instead to build affordable houses without making villages uglier and bigger, and without alienating the residents?

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rory chairs community affordable housing event

Rory has welcomed the significant level of interest among Eden parishes for community-led affordable housing schemes, following an event he chaired in Crosby Ravensworth to showcase the 12 affordable houses, built and owned by the local community. Following the official opening of the Stoneworks Garth site by the MP back in October last year, Rory […]

rory convenes housing event for constituency parish

Rory has this week extended an invitation to all parish councils within his constituency to attend an event to be held in Crosby Ravensworth next month showcasing the community’s successful affordable housing scheme, offering other Cumbrian parish councils and community groups the chance to learn about the process through which Crosby Ravensworth’s residents developed an affordable […]

rory hosts planning minister visit to pioneering eden valley

  Rory was delighted to welcome to his constituency this week the government Minister for Planning – Nick Boles MP – who visited both the Upper Eden Neighbourhood Development Plan (UENDP) area and the Lyvennet Community Trust’s affordable housing project Stoneworks Garth at Crosby Ravensworth. The Ministerial visit included a trip to Brough where Nick […]

rory takes affordable housing on the road

Rory attended Culgaith Parish Council’s most recent council meeting to better understand the local community’s potential interest for local affordable housing. Rory recently wrote to all the parish councils within his constituency asking them to get in touch if they felt affordable housing was something their community was interested in and keen to learn more about. Culgaith was one of […]

affordable housing

In many Cumbrian villages, residents cannot afford to buy or rent homes, so they leave, taking their families and their businesses with them. As a result, shops, pubs, and primary schools close.  And villages become increasingly reserves for the elderly, whose children and grandchildren live in distant towns. We talk about this all the time. But […]

CrosbyRhousing

Rory rates Crosby Ravensworth’s Affordable Housing

Rory paid his latest visit to the local affordable housing site at Crosby Ravensworth in mid-March and called it “an inspiration and model for Cumbria”. The new development provides 12 affordable homes in the centre of the village of Crosby Ravensworth, built around a ‘village green’ modelled on Dufton, and carefully designed to fit in […]

home swap direct

Rory has welcome the government’s launch of its HomeSwap Direct scheme, providing tenants of social housing with new opportunities to move anywhere in the UK. HomeSwap Direct will mean that for the first time there will be a system in place across the whole of the UK, meaning that tenants looking to move, whether for […]