Hospitality workers, social care staff, nurses and agricultural workers are being “priced out” of rural areas across Cumbria, the National Housing Federation has warned.
The chronic shortage of affordable homes is leading to high vacancy rates in important sectors serving rural areas such as tourism, health and social care services, statistics have shown.
With workers unable to afford a home close to their place of employment, waiting lists for social housing in England are also soaring, although local authorities have little way of meeting the demand, said officials.
An “alarming” gap has grown between the number of people needing social housing and the amount of social housing actually being built.
New figures show that the number of rural households on local authority waiting lists in England increased by 31 per cent between 2019 and 2022 – equivalent to 46,000 households.
Yet in that time, just under 6,000 new homes for social rent were completed in rural areas across the country, figures from the National Housing Federation show.
Research by Cumbria Tourism with its members this year has shown that 86 per cent of businesses are short of staff.
A total of 73 per cent have said they are struggling with recruitment and 77 per cent say there is a lack of applicants.
Vacancy rates in tourism in Cumbria are running at around 19 per cent and in the last year alone, 16 per cent of staff quit the sector, further compounding the loss of international staff from Brexit, the research found.
Yet there are nearly 7,000 people in Cumbria actively seeking work, but standing in their way from taking up employment are a lack of places to rent where the employer is based, the high costs of accommodation, a shortage of on-site staff accommodation and high transport costs making commutes unaffordable.
Furthermore, the poor frequency and connectivity of public transport, are combining to stop job seekers taking up roles, especially those positions which are low paid.
A total of 41 per cent of businesses in the tourism industry have told Cumbria Tourism that a lack of people has forced either a “temporary or partial” closure.
Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said the problem of “truly affordable social housing” was acute in rural areas as well as urban areas, with families being driven apart and young people on low incomes unable to find any homes.
“Rural communities, like anywhere else, need people who are able to contribute in different ways to ensure they can thrive.
“However, teachers, social care workers, nurses and workers in hospitality and agriculture are being priced out of the market, unable to afford a home close to their work.
“We need to make sure that people are able to live, work and bring up their children in a quality home they can afford.”
