By Sarah Newstead

Last updated 13:48, Friday, 14 November 2008

MORE than 145 affordable homes must be found for families in North Allerdale’s towns to meet demand over the next five years.

Pressure is growing for shared-ownership housing schemes or homes in Silloth, Aspatria and Wigton priced within the reach of cash-strapped families.

Before 2013, 91 homes must be found in Silloth - 12 of these need to be two-bedroom houses and bungalows for rent. The remaining 79 must be two to four-bedroom homes for low cost ownership.

Wigton needs 25 two-bedroom homes for rent and low cost ownership by 2013. Aspatria needs 15 four-bedroom houses to rent and 14 two-bedroom homes for low cost ownership.

Housing targets in Allerdale Council’s corporate plan are set even higher with 244 homes to be found - 88 of these must be open market properties and the remaining 156 to be affordable homes.

Factors affecting the predictions include the backlog of people waiting for suitable housing, households changing as grown-up children fly the nest and people moving in and out of the towns.

The predicted demand comes at a time when the construction of new housing developments nationally have slowed.

A council spokesman said: “Nationwide economic difficulties have been in the news for some time now. The Government's target under the National Affordable Housing Programme is for registered social landlords to make 70 per cent of their stock available for social rented schemes, the rest can be low cost housing.”

Allerdale’s spokesman said the council could not speculate on how a short-fall in affordable housing could affect the market towns.

He added: “Traditional targets have relied on private sector developers but in Allerdale we have been taking a pragmatic approach to this and looking at other ways to ensure a continuous flow of affordable housing.

“It is difficult at this time to ascertain what impact the current economic situation will have.”

But some primary schools in the area have already reported falling numbers. It has been suggested families are being priced out of homes in some of North Allerdale’s desirable villages.

Chris Rafferty, headteacher of Bowness-on-Solway, told The Cumberland News last month he has seen pupils numbers decrease by over a third in seven years.

He said: “Nobody with young families is moving into the area. We are an aging population in Bowness and with the housing market not changing, houses are just too expensive here. There’s nothing moving.”

The term affordable housing applies to properties are those available through shared ownership schemes, or for purchase at a price not greater than 3.5 times the average income.

The average wage in Silloth is £25,400, for Wigton it is £24,600 and for people living in Aspatria it is £23,200.

Average prices for a two-bedroom house in Silloth and Aspatria according to property information based on land registry records for August 2008 was £126,000.

For the same month, average two-bedroom house prices in Wigton were £115,000.

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