Lyme Regis residents’ DIY solution to housing crisis

RESIDENTS of a seaside town have built their own affordable housing for locals after becoming fed up with families being priced out of the area by second-home owners.

Community leaders in Lyme Regis, in Dorset, launched the £2million project to help combat a housing crisis in one of the worst areas in Britain for first-time buyers. The average house price in the resort is £350,000, well beyond the means of most people born and brought up in the area.

After forming the not-for-profit Lyme Regis Community Land Trust, the group approached local landowner David Garman OBE, who agreed to sell a one-acre plot for a nominal fee. The trust gained planning permission and secured £2million of public funding to build a new cul-de-sac.

The properties – four three-bedroom, six two-bedroom and five onebedroom homes – are nearly finished and will be let to locals who can prove they have lived in Lyme Regis for five out of the last 10 years.

They will pay a rent of no more than 80 per cent of the market value, which is about £800 a month for a three-bedroom house. The new estate will be called Garman’s Field, in tribute to the philanthropist.

Keith Jenkin, the chairman of Lyme Regis CLT, said: “High rents have been compounded by relatively low incomes for many residents for a long time.”