BUILDING more affordable homes must be a priority for the new unitary Somerset Council when it is created at the end of the month, West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said this week.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said local families were becoming severely disadvantaged by Somerset’s continuing popularity as a retirement area.

He welcomed an announcement that 16 new, low-cost homes were to be provided in Nether Stowey following a successful funding bid to Homes England by Sedgemoor District Council.

The Government agency provided £1.5 million in addition to £180,000 from the EDF housing mitigation fund, which was set up ahead of work starting on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

But Mr Liddell-Grainger said other similar schemes were desperately needed across the county.

He said: “In the west of Somerset the problem is particularly acute.

“There is a huge demand for retirement homes in and around Exmoor, but the national park itself has never built anywhere near enough houses to ensure the market remains in balance and local people on local wages can afford a roof over their heads.

“We are now reaching a stage where in some villages the genuinely local families are hugely outnumbered by retirees, and young couples who would have preferred to remain living where they were born have had no option but to move away.

“Of course, we welcome newcomers to the area, particularly if they want to play a full part in the life of the communities where they now live.

“But, equally, we should recognise the fact that there are many younger people who would prefer to remain in villages where their families may have been living for several generations - though because of the imbalance in the housing market currently have no means of doing so.”