Wensleydale Heifer manager buys first home in Yorkshire Dales village after 20-year wait thanks to locals' 30% discount

Carly Thompson, who works at The Wensleydale Heifer, and stonemason Pete Akers have bought a three-bedroom home on the Broadacres and Hartforth Homes development in West Witton with a 30 per cent discount as part of a scheme for people with a connection to the village.

The estate has 17 new properties, with eight designated for the affordability scheme, two of which are rented.

All of the homes are heated using renewable energ, via air source heat pumps.

Miss Thompson, 39, grew up in nearby Finghall, had known about the development site since she was a teenager and spent four years saving up for a deposit.

She said: “We were renting privately in the village, but it was getting to the stage where we thought we would have to move away to realise our dream of owning a home in West Witton.

“The demand in the Yorkshire Dales is very high and we would have struggled to buy a home due to the unaffordable prices but when the Broadacres’ scheme became a reality, we hoped we would be successful.

“We would not have been able to buy the home without the 30 per cent discount offered to local people so to now be in our own home after so many years is fantastic.

“It’s just a few hundred yards away from where I work, so it really is a dream come true.”

Other new residents who were eligible for the discount include a farmer and a couple who work in the Middleham racing yards.

“There’s already a lovely little community here so we couldn’t be happier. Our old home had oil heating, so it was expensive to heat but we are already noticing how warm and efficient the heat pump is and even with the high electricity prices, we are still paying much less than we were.”

The development is housing association Broadacres’ first in the National Park since an estate in Bainbridge was completed in 2008.