WEST Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has called for urgent action to address the housing crisis for young people and families in the region.

Mr Liddell-Grainger was speaking ahead of Rural Housing Week and said more work needs to be done to help young local people and families find affordable homes in the area to stop them from leaving.

He said that a boom in demand for holiday homes in the area had left villages as "ghost settlements" during the off-season.

As part of the awareness-raising week, the National Housing Federation will warn not enough affordable homes are being built to meet the growing demand of smaller, cheaper homes for fewer family members.

The trend is particularly the case in West Somerset, which also has a large number of holiday accommodation and second homes, which can price local families out of the market.

Now, Mr Liddell-Grainger is calling on local authorities and housing associations to do more to provide the homes.

He said scores of villages in the most scenic parts of the countryside and coastline had been "swamped" by demand for holiday second and retirement homes in recent years, inflating house prices to a point where they were well beyond the reach of young families on low local wages.

Mr Liddell-Grainger saidL “You only have to walk the streets of one or two of these out of the holiday season to see how they have become ghost settlements with their amenities gradually disappearing as the population’s spending power decreases.

“Unless we can turn the wheel through 180 degrees increasing numbers of young people are going to be forced in out of villages where their families have lived for generations, with all the implications that has for the balance and dynamism of community life.

“Not that it’s only the young who are affected; the same problems are forcing out many older people who have lived in tied accommodation up to the point where they have retired, only to find the only properties available for them may be 10 or 20 miles away from the place they know and love.

“We have let this issue build up a tremendous head of steam but now is the time for all housing providers to start working together to tackle it head-on.”