‘I can’t find anywhere to rent in the village where I work’

Nestled on the edge of the Lake District is the village of Silverdale in Lancashire.

About 1,500 people live here. It is a desirable location, but many residents say what the village lacks is affordable housing.

Ellie Consadine works in Fuelling the Bold café in Silverdale, but she lives 7.2km (4.5 miles) out of the village.

“There’s not really that much on offer for renting in the village, so we’re renting in Carnforth, which is a lot more affordable,” she said.

Ellie, who does not drive, said she would like to see better public transport links in the area.

“My partner drives so sometimes we come in together, but if I have to get public transport that’s the train, which has recently gone up in price, and then it’s a 25-minute walk from the train station.

“There’s no bus in the morning so I can’t get the bus to work.

“We would really like to live here, me and my partner we both work in Silverdale but at the moment it’s just not really viable for us to live here.”

Throughout this month, North West Tonight has been looking at what life is like for people living in rural communities.

A lack of affordable housing has been highlighted as one of the major issues, especially for young people.

Dan Hackett, who works in the village supermarket, lives in Silverdale with his parents.

“It’s hard to afford living around here. Even renting is pretty expensive,” he said.

“The average rent is £1,000 to £1,200 maybe a month.”

A lack of affordable housing has affected village life, including the recruitment of staff.

“We did have a stint where we were struggling to hire because it was just so far out of the way and didn’t pay enough to compensate them for the travel or where they lived,” said Dan.

Silverdale Parish councillors said they were working on a plan to improve transport links.

“There’s problems with some businesses having to close or having to reduce their hours because they can’t get workers for the hours that they need to be open,” said councillor Jenny Webster.

“It’s an absolutely beautiful place to visit and I want it to be kept as a real community and not just sort of a just a tourist destination with a lot of second homes.”

Councillor Keith Reed said the “big problem” was finding land to build on.

“We’re in a national landscape, which is an area of outstanding natural beauty, and we have a duty to protect that,” he said.

“So we don’t want large new housing estates. Indeed, they wouldn’t be allowed. We’re looking for small sites on brownfield land.”

The government has said it intends to build 1.5m homes over the next five years, adding its ‘rural housing enabler programme’ offers grants to speed up small-scale developments to provide affordable housing.

But local politicians say urgent action is needed if villages like Silverdale are to remain thriving communities.