Farron supports Ambleside Community Enterprise in their bid for affordable local homes

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has written to senior local leaders in support of the Ambleside Community Enterprise, a group of local residents who are campaigning for unused public land in their community to be released for use as affordable homes.

Tim has written to the Leader of Cumbria County Council (CCC) and the Chief Executive of Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) to support Ambleside Community Enterprise's bid to keep the Wanlass Howe plot for affordable homes only. The hope is that Ambleside Community Enterprise and local residents will successfully lobby CCC to sell the land at a cheaper rate so that it can be used for reasonably-priced housing for local people.

As part of Tim's ongoing campaign for affordable local homes, he has welcomed today's government announcement which will be of great help to local schemes such as Ambleside Community Enterprise. The new Community Right to Reclaim Land will give members of the public the right to reclaim and develop hundreds of acres of unused public sector land and buildings, releasing it from its current bureaucratic trap, to help communities use the publicly owned land for new developments.

Commenting this afternoon, Tim said: "Ambleside Community Enterprise is doing a fantastic job of working with the community to lobby the CCC into release Wanlass Howe for affordable local homes. There is currently vast amounts of public sector land that could be developed for new homes, businesses and leisure facilities, so I thrilled that a local group are campaigning to do this. We have a staggering three thousand local people waiting for an affordable home. On top of that we lose around a third of our young people, never to return - that is why we desperately need to secure land like this for our communities."

"I will be tabling an Early Day Motion in support of the Ambleside Community Enterprise and will be calling on the CCC and LDNPA to support their initiative. With affordable homes being a key issue in South Lakeland, we must support such enthusiastic and committed work for our local community."