'We need jobs for young or our villages will die'

Villages across Somerset are in danger of "dying" if more cannot be done to provide local jobs for young people, a councillor has warned.

- Daniel Mumby Local democracy reporter

Somerset Council recently published its economic prosperity strategy, which lays out a vision for how jobs and investment will be attracted to the county.

Liberal Democrat councillor Matt Martin, who represents the rural King Alfred division, has openly criticised the strategy, accusing the council of “aiming low” and not doing enough to attract high-quality, well-paid jobs to the area.

Without these, he warned, Somerset’s villages would die out amid the growing exodus of young people to London and other cities, pointing to recent trends on the continent.

Mr Martin - who lives in the small village of Westhay, between Glastonbury and Highbridge - said: “My problem with young people in Somerset is that they are going away - and the reason for that is largely people like me.

“I came down from the South East, brought my South East money [with me] and bought a house that no one else could afford to buy in the local area.