Growing numbers of hospitality workers, social care staff, nurses and agricultural workers are being “priced out” of rural areas of Cumbria, the National Housing Federation has warned.
The chronic shortage of affordable homes in places such as Eden and South Lakeland is leading to higher vacancy rates in important sectors such as tourism, and health and social care services, new statistics have shown.
With workers unable to afford house prices close to their place of employment and rising rents, waiting lists for social housing in England are also coming under massive pressure with local authorities having few options when it comes to meeting the huge demand.
Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said the problem of “truly affordable social housing” was acute in rural areas, with families being driven apart and young people on low incomes unable to find anywhere to live.
“Rural communities, like anywhere else, need people who are able to contribute in different ways to ensure they can thrive. However, teachers, social care workers, nurses and workers in hospitality and agriculture are being priced out of the market, unable to afford a home close to their work. We need to make sure that people are able to live, work and bring up their children in a quality home they can afford.”
An “alarming” gap is growing between the number of people signing up for social housing and the amount of social housing actually being built.
New figures show that the number of rural households on local authority waiting lists in England increased by 31 per cent between 2019 and 2022 — equivalent to 46,000 households. Yet in that time, just under 6,000 new homes for social rent were completed in rural areas across the country, figures from the National Housing Federation show.
Research by Cumbria Tourism with its members this year has shown that 86 per cent of businesses are short of staff.
A total of 73 per cent have said they are struggling with recruitment and 77 per cent say there is a lack of applicants. Vacancy rates in tourism in Cumbria are running at around 19 per cent and in the last year alone, 16 per cent of staff quit the sector, further compounding the loss of international staff from Brexit, the research found.
Yet there are nearly 7,000 people in Cumbria actively seeking work, but standing in their way from taking up employment are a lack of places to rent where the employer is based, the high costs of accommodation, a shortage of on-site staff accommodation and high transport costs making commutes unaffordable.
Furthermore, the poor frequency and connectivity of public transport, are combining to stop job seekers taking up roles, especially those positions which are low paid.
A total of 41 per cent of businesses in the tourism industry have told Cumbria Tourism that a lack of people has forced either a “temporary or partial” closure.
