You don't have to be rich to head for the Hills

But what about young people on low incomes who want to set up home for the first time especially when they live in the second most desirable area in the country?

According to a recently-published Sunday Times survey, Malvern is second only to Uttlesford, Essex, as the best place to live in England and Wales.

But with the growing demand for properties and average house prices at £138,714 in the Malvern Hills district, it presents a real problem for people on low incomes who want to put a roof over their heads.

With this in mind it could be argued that the need for social housing is greater than ever.

This is largely the domain of Elgar Housing Association, which falls between a public service and a private company.

Property prices have gone up so much that the scope for people to buy properties here is very limited, said Richard Grounds, commercial director of its parent organisation Partnership Housing Group.

Clare Huyton, Elgar's executive director added: The demand for social housing varies. The demand is very high for properties for single people and younger couples but we do not have a big demand for sheltered housing particularly in rural areas.

The association was established about six years ago when Malvern Hills District Council took the plunge to transfer its council houses outside local authority ownership. It owns and manages 5,000 properties.

As well as being a social housing landlord, the association has set up two schemes designed to help potential homeowners get a foot on the housing ladder.

We help people into home ownership with two shared ownership schemes known as Home Buy and DIY Ownership, said Mr Grounds.

Home Buy enables people to buy 75 per cent of their property, while the other 25 per cent is provided through a Government grant. When the house is sold, the buyer receives 75 per cent of the sale price and the rest goes back to the authorities.

The DIY scheme means people can buy 50 per cent of the property and they rent the other 50 per cent from Elgar. If their financial circumstances change they can buy more of the house.

It helps to enable local people to stay in the area and especially in the rural communities, said Mr Grounds.

But for those who can't afford or don't want to own their own properties, there's the choice of private rented or renting from Elgar. The latter is a popular option Elgar has nearly 1,600 names on its waiting list.

However, due to the Right To Buy initiative about 50 long-standing Elgar tenants decide to buy their houses each year.

More people want housing than used to be the case but there are a lot of planning restrictions on new developments, said Mr Grounds.

We need to retain our levels of stock to keep up with the demand for housing. The planning issues in the local area and vibrancy of the local market are causing problems.

Elgar uses opportunities for small developments when they arise. Our development programmes usually mean six properties here and four there. We are not building the big old fashioned housing estates, he added.

When Elgar took on Malvern Hills District Council houses it was able to raise funds through borrowing that were inaccessible to the district council and this has enabled it to invest more while keeping rent rises at manageable levels.

We've spent more than £30m on our properties and services since we started, said Mrs Huyton.

The association reports to a board of voluntary members which consists of tenants, district councillors and independent people from the local community including a retired bank manager, a former social services manager, a company director and a retired wing commander.

This means the tenants have more say about housing services and can directly influence decisions.

Joyce Brown, chairman of the main tenants panel, said there was a lot of tenants involvement in the housing services now, and any problems were usually resolved very quickly.

I personally feel it's a more workable and friendly atmosphere between the tenants and Elgar. We feel more a part of it and are given the opportunity to become more involved.

Elgar has made a lot of changes to the way services are run.

The housing service was very centralised and the decision was taken to have area offices taking the services to the tenants, said Mrs Huyton.

After an initial settling in period, Elgar has also expanded its range of services and the area in which it operates.

While the bulk of its work remains in the Malvern area, it also runs services in Herefordshire, Worcester and even Birmingham.

We now provide rented accommodation for over 100 students at University College Worcester. This is properly furnished and decorated accommodation and gives parents a lot of comfort.

The association also runs a similar scheme in Hereford and another for international students attending Birmingham University who have come from African, Asian and Far Eastern countries with their families to do post graduate courses.

Other Elgar projects include:

The Foyer a scheme in Malvern providing accommodation for up to 12 homeless people aged 16 to 25, which is run in partnership with Malvern Hills Homeless Young Adults Trust. It provides a secure home and training in life skills and social skills which are designed to improve their chances of getting on college courses and securing work

Stay Put an emergency alarm system that Elgar can install for older people in their own homes and those owned by Elgar Housing

Elgar Housing also supports a number of local initiatives like community safety projects and the Langlands community centre, and sponsors local youth football.

Its future plans include a major merger with Spa Housing Association, which operates in the Droitwich area, and this is expected to go ahead next April.

It will create economies of scale and those savings can directly impact on rent levels and can bring about genuine benefits for tenants, added Mrs Huyton.

Jonathon Slade, business development consultant and chairman of Elgar's board, said he was delighted with the way the association had developed but there was always room for improvement.

It's more of a challenge than the commercial world because we've the added layer of complications because we have Government involvement.

I don't think they take housing that seriously. All we hear about is education and health services but if people don't have places to live it's a really serious problem.

The local authority has been extremely helpful but providing housing is a constant battle and I'm sure it won't get any easier. However, I feel we can rise to the challenge.