I was delighted that the new Housing Minister, Caroline Flint, chose Dorset as the first place to come and see some of the problems people have in developing affordable rural housing.

I took her to Worth Matravers to the Community Land Trust project first.  There we met those who are working to develop a modest number of affordable houses by buying land as a community asset that they can then control to keep the housing value affordable.

From there we went on to Durdle Door for a lunch hosted by James Weld but with representatives from across the county with an interest and expertise in housing.  We had a very interesting an informative discussion with local planners, housing associations, community campaigners and landowners.

Then on to Portland to open a new affordable housing project at Grangecroft on the top of the island for Weymouth and Portland Housing.  We met some of the new residents who will be buying a shared ownership flat.  Given the scale of problems we have in this area locally it is great to meet people whose housing problems are actually being solved!

All in all it was a great visit and I hope Caroline got as much out of it to inform her important new job.