This significant change has been come about by government intervention and by being designated a regeneration area which in turn has meant mass demolition of many traditional terraced houses. In fact it would have been cheaper to have totally renovated these properties to bring them back to life but lack of well paid jobs has meant many well educated and ambitious locals were forced to move elsewhere to make a decent living.

The increase in prices has in fact been a double edged sword and whilst Accrington property prices are now more in line with the National property prices, it has really made the poor poorer. Although people are selling their properties for what appears to be vastly increased sums of money they are actually no better off because they still have to pay for a new home and of course all property prices have risen. Those that really need to trade up from a two bedroom property to a three bedroom property are finding the massive increase in price between the two prohibitive, meaning many poorer households are living in overcrowded conditions.

To some extent it might have been better for the locals, (unless they moved from the area), for prices to remain low because it meant that with their low wages they could afford to buy their first home. Unfortunately wages in the area still have not increased and in some ways the situation has become worse because East Europeans moving to the area, are happy to work for minimum wage (and sometimes less), making even poorly paid jobs more scarce and not giving employers any encouragement whatsoever to improve their rates of pay.

It all sounds like doom and gloom but this certainly isn’t the case for those who do earn above the minimum wage and people moving into the area. Accrington is a lovely place to live as you are never far away from a beautiful view of some of Lancashire’s undulating countryside. The Town is only around 20 miles to both Manchester and Preston’s City Centres. We have all the convenience of being close to these cities while living in pretty, quaint rural town. Accrington has a low crime rate and a good well integrated ethnic community; it has had none of the problems of our near neighbours Blackburn and Burnley.