Another community-led housing group aiming to tackle the housing crisis and provide affordable homes for local families has been set up.

The Burton Bradstock Community Land Trust (CLT) has launched and will now start recruiting members, collecting data on local housing need and begin the search for housing sites in the parish for a small development of affordable homes for local people.

The new CLT has been established as a Community Benefit Society by a founding board drawn from the parish. The objectives of the new CLT include holding land in trust for the community and providing housing for those in need, as well as helping to improve housing standards in the parish.

Founding chairman of the new Burton Bradstock CLT, David Dixon, says he has long recognised the problems facing families who want to stay in, or move to, the village.

Mr Dixon said: “Successive Parish Plan documents tell us that affordable housing and an ageing demography are the most pressing issues facing our community.

“House prices in the Burton Bradstock are well above the average for west Dorset, meaning families with strong connections to the village find it difficult to affordable homes to buy or rent in the parish. It is essential that we do what we can to support families and young people who want to be a healthy and balanced village community.”

A public meeting held in spring 2018 and attended by more than 100 local people heard how communities across west Dorset are establishing CLTs, a locally-owned solution to the housing crisis in which the community take an active role in securing site for affordable housing and, through local arrangements, ensure new homes remain affordable permanently.

A second public meeting is planned for December 2018 to explain how the CLT will find sites for affordable homes.

Locals are being encouraged to support the CLT by becoming members.

For more information, contact Burton Bradstock CLT secretary Andrew Bailey at ab@grastonfarm.co.uk