COUNCILLORS have said they are committed to providing affordable housing for local people after new figures revealed South Lakeland is the least affordable region in the North West for first time buyers.

The analysis by Nationwide Building Society ranked the most and least affordable local authority areas for first-time home buyers in Britain using an average house price-to-earnings ratio using figures from 2021.

Leader of South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) Councillor Jonathan Brook and Councillor Adrian Legge, Mayor of Windermere and Bowness, said they were not surprised by the data and that SLDC and Windermere and Bowness Town Council are actively working to ensure South Lakelanders are not priced out of the region.

Cllr Legge said the awaited Windermere Gateway project ‘offers some hope of improvement’ by providing 60 low-cost homes near Orrest Head Farm.

He added that newly constructed buildings in the town have local occupancy conditions.

And Cllr Brook said SLDC is focused on creating ‘balanced and sustainable communities’ and is ‘well on its way’ to achieving its target of facilitating the delivery of 588 affordable homes to buy and 477 affordable homes to rent by 2025.

While MP Tim Farron said the way to tackle the issue is to build ‘lots more’ affordable homes for local families and to ‘put a lid’ on the ‘explosion’ of second home ownership in the area that is ‘robbing’ communities of a permanent population.

He added he would not stop campaigning until both are achieved.

“It is no surprise to learn that South Lakeland is the most expensive place for first-time buyers in the North West,” said Cllr Legge.

“All newly constructed buildings in Windermere have a local occupancy condition, meaning that they may not be used as holiday homes or holiday-lets.

“However, the vast majority of these new builds are large houses and certainly not "affordable" by first-time buyers.

“Windermere Town Council will do what it can to support applications to provide more low-cost housing for locals. We would also support applications by housing associations to build rental accommodation.”

Cllr Brook said: “These figures confirm what we already know, that South Lakeland is a great place to live work and explore and that there is significant demand for homes and a restricted supply, which pushes up the price of housing.

“As a council we recognise the problems, particularly for young people and families and we are focussed on providing solutions.

“We recognise that the delivery of affordable housing for local people is key.

“This is spelt out in our Council Plan, where we have an objective of delivering 1,000 affordable homes for rent between 2015 and 2025.

“We are well on the way to meeting this challenging target, with new affordable homes being built across the district including significant developments in Ambleside, Kendal, Coniston, Grange, Staveley, Ulverston and Kirkby Lonsdale.

“We have also put in place a requirement that 35 per cent of any new housing development over 10 homes, will be made up of affordable homes.

“We want to encourage community led housing schemes in communities right across the district and we have a pot of £2.3m available for this purpose.”