PLANS are being discussed to use private investment to help locals buy properties in an area where holiday-makers are pushing up prices.

With average prices for starter homes in the Yorkshire Dales now more than £100,000, young people from rural communities are finding it almost impossible to buy property in areas where they have lived all their lives.

Research has shown 70 per cent of people buying property in the area, come from outside the Dales.

Richmondshire Local Strategic Partnership has now confirmed it is working out the details of a community pot of private money which could pay half the price of a home for struggling first-time buyers in parts of the Dales.

The idea is that the resident would then pay the remainder of the cost and pay back the money they borrowed when the property is eventually sold on, along with a share of any profit made.

"Shared equity schemes are not novel," said partnership chairman, Dr Peter Annison.

"Housing associations run them but they are funded mainly by public money from the Housing Corporation.

"However, property prices and the scale of the affordable homes problem means the amount of money available from the Government through the Housing Corporation is now totally inadequate so we have looked further afield, to the private investor."

The partnership will form working groups to research how a fund could be set up and assess what investors and home-buyers would want from the project.

Katie Entwhistle, 22, who works as a salesroom assistant at Tennants in Leyburn, confirmed young people need a helping hand if high prices are not to drive them out of the area.

"I'm planning to return to university in September but I would like to think I can come back and settle here,'' she said.

"With property prices what they are these days, it is almost assumed you will live with your parents at least until you get married and, even then, there's no guarantee you will find somewhere you can afford.

"Renting is an option but it's not something you want to do for ever. Finding somewhere to live is certainly something which worries me, as well as most of my friends who live and work in the area."