WEYMOUTH and Portland faces becoming a borough with an increasingly elderly population as younger people move out in search of affordable homes.

The corporate plan, which sets out priorities for the borough council up to 2019, notes that residents are living longer and many people who come to live in the area are close to retirement age.

It also states that almost three in five – 57 per cent – young working households are unable to afford property at the lower end of the market.

The report reads: “Younger people are moving out of the area because of the affordability gap between house prices and wages.”

The corporate plan is a draft document which will be discussed at a meeting of the full council this Thursday.

Councillors have been giving their views on the key challenges of the area to help shape the plan.

At a workshop in January, they agreed that the draft plan should be structured around four strategic priorities:

  • Building a stronger economy
  • Empowering thriving and inclusive communities
  • Improving quality of life
  • Developing successful partnerships

Alongside the plan the council’s senior leadership team is working with heads of service and corporate managers to discuss the financial challenges ahead. Councillors will be given further information on this in the autumn, ahead of the budget setting for the financial year 2017/18.

The draft corporate plan notes: “The council needs to make significant cuts to its budget at a time of increasing demand to some services.”

But the plan aims to tackle the challenges facing the borough despite the straitened financial circumstances.

Under the aim of ‘building a stronger economy’ the authority wants to increase the number of homes built in the borough. It aims to do this by securing initiatives to increase the supply of housing and affordable homes and reduce the number of empty properties.

It also wants to improve job prospects by developing access to training, deliver better infrastructure to support employers and promote plans for economic growth in the town centre.

Earlier this month the Echo published a report based on research by the Housing Federation. This revealed low earners – particularly young, first-time buyers – are being priced out of rural areas of Dorset, with the cheapest homes costing at least nine times the average income of low earners.