A KEY PERK OF THE JOB

Is tied accommodation a brilliant fringe benefit in uncertain times, or a relic of days gone by?

- LUCY HIGGINSON

With the challenge of securing a job and a comfortable home tougher than ever these days, how lucky are those whose job comes with a home thrown in? The countryside has long traditions of tied accommodation, either to lure people to remote areas or to bolster remuneration. With property and rental prices bordering on bonkers, a job with a house has rarely been more valuable, as rural schools such as Benenden in Kent and Ludgrove in Berkshire have realised, with recent staff accommodation building programmes.

But is a tied house just a blessing in troubled times or, perhaps, also a relic of another age, when people rarely batted an eye at mildew and no one ever ‘customised to personal specifications’ everything from their car to their kitchen? Is a job with a tied home a big attraction or a potential vulnerability, leaving you homeless as well as jobless if things don’t work out?

It’s a subject close to my own heart as I prepare to downsize at the end of my husband’s 13-year tenure as a housemaster at Eton. Spoiled for years with seven bedrooms, a domed marble hallway and free utility bills, I’m forcibly reminded that they were only ever on loan. As friends graduate to larger homes, I’m selling furniture (how did we accumulate six sofas?) and wondering if we’ll have room for a kitchen table in a smaller, school-owned property.