8 hours ago
My simple plan for affordable homes that keeps everyone happy
I have lived in the same village in Worcestershire for the past 50 years, on the same land that my family has farmed since the middle of the 18th century, in the area that inspired the village of Ambridge from The Archers.
To sustain employment on the land, which had fallen from more than 60 people when I began down to three in the Eighties, we have diversified into hydroelectricity, housebuilding, hosting weddings and the invention of flower petal confetti, for which we grow more than 30 acres of flowers in a field that is visited by people from all over the world.
In summer, we can employ more than 80 people. However this success in the rural economy is coupled with an incongruity. Many of these employees, including people who grew up in the village, complain that they can't afford to raise their families here.
