It’s time to think outside the box

A COUNTYWIDE consultation recently reviewed strategies for providing housing for young people.

Very broadly it was concluded that many youngsters have no chance of getting on the housing ladder because they do not earn enough to support a mortgage.

Equally, most young people have little chance of renting local authority housing because there are always others in the queue with greater needs and more points.

The young, therefore, are then left either living in the family home long after they want their independence or spending up to a third of their monthly pay packets on private rent, never to see that hard-earned cash again.

The scenario painted at the conference was a very gloomy one indeed.

It reminded me of another family long ago for whom there was no room at the inn.

Joseph and Mary had travelled far to be counted in a population census, with Mary about to give birth to the son of God.

I don't know how many housing points they would have needed to qualify for shelter but, even in first century Palestine, demand for housing was outstripping supply.

What was needed was a novel solution, someone to think outside of the box.

The innkeeper had a stable and out of generosity offered it to the young couple. What Dorset needs now is for lots of people to think outside the box.

We surely cannot leave our young people to continue to flounder as they do now.

There have to be pockets of land on which housing could be built or empty rooms available in existing properties.

There are probably more solutions to the problem than I can think of, but if we were all to think outside the box might not a range of solutions be found?

Housing and shelter are basic human needs.

We have seen how the devastation in Burma and China leaves people without shelter and homes and our hearts go out to them.

But it seems odd that in this beautiful corner of England there are young people unable to secure a roof over their heads.