Work, rest and play in new Dales properties that are the business
Live Work units could boost the economy and create employment in rural areas. Sharon Dale reports on a fresh approach in the Dales.
THE National Parks are notoriously hard to please when it comes to planning applications and with good reason.
Entrusted with preserving the beautiful, historic landscape, they take a hardline approach on everything from extensions to conversions and new-builds.
But a hybrid kind of property development appears to be finding favour in the Yorkshire Dales.
Live work units, provided they are well done and in the right place, are being welcomed as a way of boosting the local economy and creating employment.
Richard Graham, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s Head of Development Management, says: “The Authority has a positive approach to finding solutions for new and existing businesses within the National Park. Well-designed live work units have proved to be an innovative way of supporting home-based businesses which, in turn, can make an important contribution to the local economy and the rural communities within the National Park.”
Richmond-based builders Randall Orchard have been working in the Dales for almost 40 years and recently turned their attention to live work development opportunities.
They have built one unit in Reeth, are working on another in Aysgarth and have applied to create a third in Reeth.
Managing director Graeme Newton says: “The national parks don’t have a policy on live work as such but they do want to encourage employment and these units attract small businesses that are diverse and different from the traditional local industries of farming and tourism.”
Graeme’s first project was a new-build on commercial land belonging to cabinet maker Philip Bastow. Sandwiched between the Dales Centre, home to a collection of designer makers, and a small development of 12 new houses, it was the perfect spot.
“Getting permission for purely residential was a non-starter and finding a buyer for a purely commercial unit would’ve been very difficult as there just wasn’t a market for it. Live work seemed to be a good solution,” says Graeme.
The national park planners thought so too and gave permission for a property with workroom, showroom and three bedroom apartment.
When Mike and Meg Evershed saw the advert for the plot in Philip’s workshop, they jumped at the chance to relocate their home and business from Kent to Swaledale.
“We know this area well and we were on short break here when we saw the advert. It sounded ideal.
“We ended up living near London for Mike’s job but it’s not where we really wanted to be. He had taken early retirement and our daughters had grown up leaving us free to move,,” says Meg.
The couple rented while the unit was built and moved in jut before Christmas last year. The Nutmeg Company, which specialises in 3D cross stitch, now employs two part-time workers.
“We started off running Nutmeg nearly 20 years ago as a cottage industry from home in Kent but that wasn’t ideal because boundaries between work and home life became blurred, so we moved the business to separate premises.
“This place gives us the best of both worlds,” says Meg
They have a showroom on the ground floor, a workshop beneath where they create, package and store cross stitch kits, and an adjacent three bedroom apartment with views on to Fremington Edge.
“It was a big decision as we were moving from one end of the country to the other but we love it and the community here has been so welcoming.
“It’s obvious that this kind of property is a good thing for small rural communities, which are keen to have as many independent businesses as possible,” says Meg.
The market for live work units appears to be strong, especially now that technology allows you to communicate so easily with the rest of the world.
However, valuing them is difficult as there are so few of them, though they tend to be slightly cheaper than residential dwellings because of the occupancy conditions, which dictate that the property has to house a business.
You also pay business rates on the commercial element of the building.
“You can’t buy something like this just because you fancy working from home.
“You have to operate a business and you have to show that it is up and running. You can’t move in with a vague plan of setting up a company in six months time,” says Graeme, who is working on the Aysgarth unit, which is being fashioned from an old workshop that once served the mill.
It has two bedrooms and an office and is on the market for £295,000.
“It’s a beautiful spot near the falls and close to the river. We renovated four mill workers’ cottages there but the planners said the workshop wasn’t suitable for residential use.
“It is listed and it didn’t appear to have a use so the danger was that it would eventually fall down. I suggested a live work conversion and the National Park agreed.
“Even if a small live work unit employs one or two people from the local community, that’s a significant contribution.”