A specialist in addressing rural housing problems is to turn his attention to parishes in the Malvern area.

Alan Saunders is aiming to provide 100 homes for local people in five years.

Mr Saunders is an independent 'rural housing enabler' who works with parish councils, housing associations, Community First and Malvern Hills District Council to pinpoint housing needs.

With the dramatic rise in house prices driving many first-time buyers out of the market - around Malvern, prices for rural homes rarely drop below £100,000 - there are concerns that young local people will not be able to afford to continue living in the communities where they grew up.

Since moving to his Malvern office last spring, Mr Saunders has met with parish councils in Kempsey, Martley, Rushwick, Abberley, Powick, Holt and Great Witley.

He is now urging parishes in the Malvern area to let him help them out.

"I work with rural communities to identify if there's a need for low-cost housing with local people," he said.

"In Kempsey and Martley we've established a need and are now looking for sites and identifying the required mix of housing.

"We're not looking to build huge estate-type developments but small schemes of six or eight properties."

Mr Saunders said the new properties would be either available to rent or part-purchase. In part-purchasing people can buy between 25 and 80 per cent of the property, dependent on what they can afford.

"I'm here for five years and my target is to provide 100 homes in rural areas around Malvern for local people," he said.

"This can take three or four years because there's a lot of work involved in finding sites that will be agreed in planning terms."

Any parish council interested in finding out more, can contact Mr Saunders on 01684 862373.