Richard Nicholls, chairman of Mid and West Dorset Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and former Bridport town councillor, gives his view on the rural housing crisis TO the young couples staring in the estate agents' windows there is not much evidence of the credit crunch affecting property prices in Bridport. The decade-long boom in house prices may have finally come to a halt but it will be of little comfort to hard-pressed families with even the most modest of homes remaining out of reach.

As this week's Affordable Rural Housing Commission report made clear there is a dire problem in our market towns and the countryside.

The facts, as laid out by the National Housing Federation, are stark.

* House prices in Dorset in 2007 cost more than 15 times the average income in the county. Even the cheapest homes in the market cost more than 10 times local incomes * in Dorset, waiting lists have more than doubled in five years from 6,206 households in 2002 to 12,709 households last year * since 2002 waiting lists have trebled in West Dorset * only 139 new social homes were built in the entire county last year * one in 30 homes in the county is a second home.

And the problems are getting worse.

This, of course, will not have come as news to the many in the town and its surrounding villages.

It is an issue that has been ignored by successive governments for some considerable time.

So how did we get here? Much of the blame can be attributed to the Thatcher government's popular right to buy policy - which virtually overnight removed much of the available social housing.

It is a policy that for the past 11 years has continued under a Labour government.

However, given the present economic situation, there is still little chance for young local couples living in rural areas of being able to afford to buy, and with little chance of finding secure rented housing.

The problem is made more complex given that affordable housing is now generally provided through agreements with private developers.

Given the economic downturn, private developers are wary of commencing any new developments, which in turn makes the availability of affordable housing increasingly difficult.

Just how serious the situation is can be found in figures provided by the National Housing Association.

It estimates that in the financial year 2004-5, 16,727 units of affordable housing were completed, but 50,320 were lost under the right to buy.

In the South West alone 134,000 affordable houses have been sold since the right to buy policy came into being 26 years ago.

Of course, there is also the matter of where to build any new affordable housing. Given that house building has been a profitable business combined with the use made of planning gain developed by Local Government, private developers are now a major provider of affordable housing.

This has resulted in developers building up their landholdings for future speculation.

Given the present world economic situation with its direct effect it is even more difficult for affordable housing to be provided for local people.

For example, it is estimated by CPRE that the leading UK house builders held around 240,000 housing plots with full or outline planning permission in 1998.

This figure rose by 44 per cent to 341,500 plots in 2005.

Given the economic situation, it is obvious that the market cannot provide, and governments need to look for alternative methods of provision.

From CPRE figures today it shows that the total number of new homes built in the UK in 2006-7 was 185,000, but only 18,200 affordable homes were built in 2005-6.

However, housing output is still relatively low compared with the output over the last 50 years because the construction of affordable subsidised housing has collapsed.

In the post-war housing boom of the 1950s some 150,000 affordable homes were built each year.

Even in the 1960s around 100,000 affordable homes were being built each year.

Now compare this with the 17,500 affordable houses being constructed in 2005.

These figures however ignore certain factors regarding the availability of housing.

CPRE estimate that the number of vacant homes rounded to the nearest 000 on the April 1, 2006 was 663,000.

Nationally there are 670,000 more homes than households, and the surplus increased between 1991 and 2001.

In fact there is a surplus of homes in every English region.

CPRE also estimate that the number of families who owned second homes in England in 2004-5 was 255,000.

This is particularly acute in Dorset where house prices are more than 15 times local earnings and one in 30 properties is a second home.

Of course this raises the question of the Council Tax payable by second homeowners, and at the time of writing, the CPRE is calling for a review of the situation that mitigates against local people both financially and socially.

But in talking with local Dorset residents the general view is that second homes should be required to pay the full Council Tax - instead of the reduced rate of 90 per cent - given the owners still have use of the local facilities whilst in residence.

They also complain that in the winter, many of our villages are now little more than ghost towns with little or no community life.

What is a fact is that some of the worst housing problems are in the countryside, especially in West Dorset.

In this respect the CPRE participated in the work of the Government's Affordable Rural Housing Commission which accepted that there was a strong case for building more state-subsidised affordable housing for people who cannot afford market prices to rent or part own.

Finally CPRE believe that we need to look at whether we can lower the demand for housing instead of concentrating on its supply, or are we too obsessed with home ownership and inclined to speculate.

Given the world economic crisis and its consequences with regard the housing market, the arguments for state subsidised affordable housing grows stronger by the minute.