Rose Cottage Ltd

I can’t imagine England without its villages. Anyone who has watched even one Midsomer Murders will quickly see that village life in England, outside the fictional murders of course, is definitely worth saving.

Unfortunately, those who grew up in villages are now faced with not being able to afford to live there as adults. And with numbers like these, you can see why:

Throughout the South East region the average house price is around £267,573, more than 12 times the average wage.

In rural areas that gap becomes even worse, with the average home costing over 14 times local incomes. In rural parts of the South East region, there are 49,892 households waiting for an affordable home.

Possibly adding to this problem is the number of expensive second or holiday homes in English villages. From my own rural environment in the US I can see where this leads to often empty homes, city income able to afford the village’s best – for a long weekend or so, and little real benefit to the village itself for the long-term.

It sounds from the article, that at least someone is paying attention to this problem. I hope they are successful.