North East

This article, ostensibly about house price declines in the urban parts of the North East, throws some very strong sidelights onto the issue of rural affordable housing.

It explains: “Over a seven year period, prices for a typical two to three bed house or flat were chased all the way up from the low teens to well in excess of £60,000. New build subject to mortgage fraud would fetch £125,000 or more. Today you’d be lucky to get half. Prices are fast regressing all the way back to where they came from before the bubble began”

As Matthew Taylor exemplified in “Living Working Countryside” it is economies which drive house prices (allied to commuting and the cost of fuel). This story demonstrates the challenge facing public policy makers – do we just let the market rip and leave people living in deprived places with surplus and low value housing stock to their economic fate and conversely those in desirable residential areas with low incomes with limited or no housing options? Or do we try and move people and jobs around to re-dress the balance?

In the current economic climate, I think the market is likely to be king leaving us with this bizarre arrangement of too many houses for people in some (principally urban) areas and no houses for others in some (principally rural) areas. You wouldn’t start from here!