It’s no surprise that Corbridge and Riding Mill are in the second most expensive area in Northumberland for house prices and it’s true that many people who have grown up here and whose families have lived here for generations cannot afford to stay in Corbridge.

Some, but not enough, new affordable social housing has been built here in the past 20 years on the Roman Fields development and before that on the Chains development and at Kiln View.

I instigated a community housing project for Corbridge Parish Council to buy four of the 20+ social houses on Roman Fields and secured funding support from Northumberland County Council. I know that four is a drop in the ocean but that’s all they would sell us and probably all we could afford. Those houses are let to people with strong local connections and demand massively outstripped supply with well over 200 applications for 4 houses (many from outside the immediate area). They are outside the right to buy and will remain with our community in perpetuity.

I would like to see a strong local lettings policy applied rigorously to all affordable housing in Corbridge run by Karbon Homes and Riverside and I’m aware that despite the best efforts of the Housing Associations the Northumberland Homefinder system is not robust enough to support this. As Chairman of County Council’s Communities and Places Scrutiny Committee I have asked for a report into how this system and the surrounding processes can be improved and will share the results of that when we have them.