Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Housing problem? Just commute from Calais
Let’s solve each other’s problems, says businessman
which could whisk commuters through the Channel Tunnel, to and from Kent.
Mr Segard, who lives near Calais, said: “On one side of the Channel Kentish towns are struggling with a lack of space and on the other side the population is at a low ebb, with a median real estate value about one third of the Kentish equivalent.”
A quick property search reveals that in France’s Pas de Calais region £150,000 can buy a detached five-bedroom farmhouse set within spacious gardens. In Canterbury it will buy you a one or two-bedroom flat.
With Folkestone just 35 minutes from Calais, commuters could reach Canterbury 38 minutes after arriving in Brit- ain – a possible overall journey of little more than an hour.
Ashford is just 15 minutes from Folkestone on the highspeed service, while London is reachable in just under an hour.
Mr Segard represents the Opale Link, a group promoting business in the region from Calais to Boulogne on the French coast.
He said: “Would it not make sense to help create a commuter line allowing people to choose to live on one side and work on the other?
“Let’s be practical and innovative, there is plenty of space for running a commuter train through the tunnel and solve each other’s problems.” Two weeks ago we revealed how Mr Johnson’s advisers were suggesting London’s population overspill could be absorbed by 115,000 new homes in Canterbury, Dover and Thanet.
That staggering figure, revealed in a report for the Mayor of London, would be on top of the new homes targets already set out in Canterbury’s Local Plan.
Today representatives from local authorities across the county were due to meet Mr Johnson and his advisers to discuss the region’s future housing needs.
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