Why you should move to a National Park
It’s crossed every commuter’s mind at least once, usually during rush hour on the Northern Line, to pack it all in and move to a cottage in a quiet bit of the countryside.
The Office for National Statistics has today offered some decidedly mixed news for those hoping to escape to the remotest parts of England and Wales.
The upside is that the National Parks still have plenty of space for you to live the rural dream without overcrowding the place. The emptiest park, in Northumberland, is home to just two people per square kilometre, compared to 12,331 in London
The bad news is around a third of National Park residents are over the age of 60, meaning the rural dream tends to be just that until after retirement.
Just over 404,000 people lived in the 13 protected areas of England and Wales in mid-2012, according to the Office for National Statistics – up 2.4 per cent over a decade, while the population in the rest of the country increased 7.5 per cent.
The slowing and ageing population growth has implications for the future of these parks – it creates difficulties in getting services to older people and keeping a workforce to pay for them.
These issues have been troubling the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which warned last year that many local authorities in remote areas are struggling to serve their older residents.
All the more reason to buy that cottage sooner rather than later, and do your bit for demographics.