Homes for Wells

A Housing Needs Survey (click to view PDF file) commissioned by Wells Area Partnership and Wells Town Council in May 2006 showed that families and young people are being forced to move out of the town due to soaring house prices. 

• Whilst over half of households in Wells have a joint income of £20,000 or less, the average terraced house costs more than ten times as much at £253,750 against £147,033 elsewhere in North Norfolk .

• 111 Wells area households have an immediate need for new housing. This need should be met with an initial development of at least 20 new flats and houses for social rent or shared ownership, according to a recommendation from Norfolk Rural Community Council which conducted the study.

• 'Key-workers' and people brought up in Wells are among those forced out by the shortage and cost of housing.  In a town of less than 2500 people, 20% + of the houses are second homes, notes the study. 

• It reveals 18 couples, 24 families and 22 single people need homes, and that 96% of the Wells population would support an affordable housing development for local people.

• 52 households had experienced a family member having to move out of Wells because of house prices, over the past five years.

The Survey proves what most people in Wells already know, that high house prices are driving out local people. It shows that every year Wells is losing ten people because they can't afford to live here.  They are mostly young and of working age, and vital to maintain the life of the town.  Unless effective action is taken to make housing available to local people, there will be a sustainability crisis and the sense of community, the very character and services which make Wells so attractive will be destroyed.

Wells Area Partnership is calling for help from North Norfolk District Council to ensure that any new housing in Wells is made available first and foremost to people and families with strong connections to the town.

It has also set up Homes for Wells, a local society that will buy (and manage) properties in and around Wells for rent to local people at an affordable rate. The properties will be held by the charity in perpetuity and only people with a proven connection to the area will be able to live in them.

The first sets of tenants have moved into Northfield Lane flats – 1 bed went to Mark Frary (local fisherman and member of Wells Lifeboat crew) and 2 bed went to Stephanie Hart and son James (lived all her life in Wells works part time as a waitress/chef in a local café).

Homes for Wells also has a 2 bed property on Freeman Street and has recently been approached to supply tenants for a 2 bedroom bungalow in the town. 

The Homes for Wells model with be used in other villages in the WAP area.

 Homes for Wells office is open 10am-4pm Wednesdays at The Sackhouse in Wells.

If you feel you can give any amount of time or make would like to make a donation to the charity, please contact John Rest at office@homesforwells.co.uk or call 07765503292 or write to Homes for Wells, The Sackhouse, Jicklings Yard, Wells NR23 1AU. Check out the Homes for Wells website www.homesforwells.co.uk

 ...help locals stay local