EXMOOR residents are being urged to have their say on possible new locations for affordable housing in the National Park and already consultations are under way on seven possible sites.

Eight moorland parishes are working together to provide more affordable housing in an effort to halt the number of young people leaving the area because no houses are available at prices they can afford.

This week the move was welcomed by local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger who said that young people were the life-blood of Exmoor and unless they could be found homes, Exmoor villages would slowly die.

The parishes of Cutcombe, Exford, Exton, Luccombe, Luxborough, Timberscombe, Winsford and Wootton Courtenay are surveying affordable housing needs, with support from Exmoor National Park Authority, and Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT).

Local landowners have been asked to come forward with land they might offer for the development of affordable housing and National Park planners have sifted through these to produce a list of the sites with the most potential.

An SWT spokesperson said: “Some may accommodate the whole need identified in the survey and others would be suitable for a smaller number or individual homes or have the potential to be used as self-build sites.

“Initially it was hoped the consultation could be through drop-in sessions at village halls within the parishes, however, Covid-19 restrictions have meant the consultation is being carried as an online questionnaire.”

To ensure the widest possible coverage and allow those without access to the internet to air their views, a limited number of paper copies have also been distributed to the village shops in the eight parishes, complete with pre-paid return envelopes to be returned to SWT.

The survey is open until March 31 after which SWT will carry out the analysis for the Affordable Housing Group and the results will be presented to the Working Group during April 2021.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said the park authority should be left in no doubt it is facing a chronic shortage of accommodation for local families – and that as many units as possible should be built.

“The lack of affordable housing on Exmoor has been flagged up for years as one of the most pressing issues facing the national park – but the park authority has appeared more concerned about looking after the wildlife rather than the people who make up the Exmoor community,” he said.

“Successive Exmoor administrations have stood back and allowed the uncontrolled spread of second homes, the net effect of which has been the loss of local shops in some villages – as a survey has revealed – while pushing average house prices well beyond the reach of most people earning Exmoor wages.

“I am relieved something is at last being done to remedy this, though there is a huge amount of ground to make up and I find it somewhat dispiriting that this initiative has taken three years just to get to the point of public consultation.