Schools close as families are priced out of rural areas

blunt_crayon

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Warning_over_rural_school_closures&in_article_id=728785&in_page_id=34

Can the HPI cheerleaders explain to me how this is a good thing? Let's start with, it isn't a right to live in the countryside.

StevieJ

blunt_crayon wrote: »

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Warning_over_rural_school_closures&in_article_id=728785&in_page_id=34

Can the HPI cheerleaders explain to me how this is a good thing? Let's start with, it isn't a right to live in the countryside.

Who are they

shakerbaby

blunt_crayon wrote: »

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Warning_over_rural_school_closures&in_article_id=728785&in_page_id=34

Can the HPI cheerleaders explain to me how this is a good thing? Let's start with, it isn't a right to live in the countryside.

But bulls see this type of affect on society as a good thing.

shakerbaby

StevieJ wrote: »

Who are they

The sockies. :rolleyes:

purch

Can the HPI cheerleaders explain to me how this is a good thing?

Why would you want someone to explain to you that this is a good thing when patently it is not ??

In the part of Somerset where I live, we have a 3 tier system with one High School (yrs 9 onwards, 3 Middle Schools (yrs 5 to 8) and numerous First Schools.

Many of the First Schools in the small villages are likely to close soon, as some have fewer than 20 on the roster, and even my youngest son's Middle School which is on Exmoor, is struggling to justify it's existence, as the youngest 3 years have less than 30 in each year.

But if they do close this Middle School, kids of 9 and 10 will face 40+ mile daily 'commutes' into the bigger towns.

Not good !!!

julieq

Compare with the old system, where a small number of rural landowners let property on their estates out to people working on it.

You have to decide if you want near universal home ownership, in which case you have to admit free market competition for housing in desirable places, or else a system where ownership is in the hands of a few and the masses rent. The situation is exacerbated in the countryside because a lot of rural work is very low paid.

It's not really a question of one being right and the other wrong in absolute moralistic terms, both have pros and cons.

I was born and bred rurally. I'm proportionally very well off indeed but I can't afford to live where I was born. I'd love to live in a pretty rural village, but I can't afford to. I don't whinge about that, I don't complain I've been forced out, I just get as close as I can to what I aspire to and get on with life according to my own set of priorities.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

blunt_crayon wrote: »

Can the HPI cheerleaders explain to me how this is a good thing? Let's start with, it isn't a right to live in the countryside.

Oh there's no doubt it's a bad thing....

However it's also inevitable given the shortage of supply and excess of demand that Britain faces for housing.

But it's a problem that is easily fixed.

Build more houses......

blunt_crayon

julieq wrote: »

Compare with the old system, where a small number of rural landowners let property on their estates out to people working on it.

You have to decide if you want near universal home ownership, in which case you have to admit free market competition for housing in desirable places, or else a system where ownership is in the hands of a few and the masses rent. The situation is exacerbated in the countryside because a lot of rural work is very low paid.

I don't see how the current situation reflects this situation where renting was much cheaper than buying. Generally these days in areas where house prices are high rents are also high, leading to the situation of lower earning families being forced to abandon the countryside for cheaper areas. If they could rent cheaply I don't know how many would move away to a worse area just to be able to buy a home.

blunt_crayon

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

... it's a problem that is easily fixed.

Build more houses......

Well, what with all these schools standing empty, we could knock them into a load of nice 1-bed flats I suppose.

purch

But it's a problem that is easily fixed

If only that were so.

It is certainly a far more complex problem, than just a 'knee jerk' HPI bad reaction, and the problems faced by rural communities go back years.

The area I live in is West Somerset, which is basically Exmoor National Park (who control their own planning, and won't allow much new build at all) and the coastal fringe where planning is controlled by an utterly incompetant and useless district council (whose latest attempt at building 'affordable' housing has suddenly gone sour as they realise they could be bankrupted if only 10% of the 'buyback' clauses they inserted into the contracts are realised)

Yes, it's bad when you visit a small village, and see ex-council houses, sold off in the 80's that are now owned as holiday homes and sit empty most of the year. But that is a problem that goes back 25 years, and has more to do with political dogma, than HPI.

blunt_crayon

I agree that it's a complex problem purch, but it has been compounded by HPI. my mum has worked in education in the lake district for the past 40 years and has seen a number of small village schools close in the past 5 years. simply not sustainable to run a school with one class of 10 pupils aged 5 to 11. meanwhile half the village is holiday homes and schools in nasty industrial towns are 30+ pupils to a class. this does go back a long way but the situation has definitely worsened recently.