HOUSING
New housing plan is gonna work on Maggie’s Farm
Before any band took to the stage, there was plenty of positive noise coming from Glastonbury. TV pundit and voice of the people Gary Lineker praised festival founder Michael Eavis for building social homes near the festival site to help locals struggling to keep up with rising rents.
The Match of the Day presenter joined Eavis and his family in Pilton, Somerset, to celebrate the completion of a further 20 social rent homes.
Eavis donated land near the site of the world-famous festival to the housebuilding firm the Guinness Partnership on the condition that it would be used for affordable homes to serve the local community in perpetuity. The project is now complete with a total of 52 houses, bungalows and flats on the Maggie’s Farm site.
Lineker said government ministers should be taking note as they look to tackle the long-running housing crisis.
“I think housing is a big issue in the country at the moment,” Lineker said, cleverly invoking the title of his favourite magazine. “We’ve got real housing issues around the country and rents are going through the roof. We all see a lot of homeless people but we’re also talking about people with good and important jobs – like teachers. Rents are soaring and they can’t afford them.
“Here rents will stay low. Nobody is going to be able to sell their properties.
