A HAMPSHIRE MEP has launched a campaign to secure low-cost housing for people whose animals maintain the New Forest.

Commoners own thousands of cows and ponies that continually graze the ancient landscape and prevent it from turning into useless scrub.

But many younger commoners are being driven out of the area by sky-high property prices.

Now local MEP Roy Perry is hoping Europe will agree to fund affordable housing for the people on whom the Forest's future depends.

He said: "Commoners are the bedrock of the Forest.

"It's their animals which keep this unique area looking the way it does, but house prices in the district are rocketing out of control.

"I'm seeking to establish if there is any European money available that will enable commoners to continue living and working in the area."

Mr Perry has joined forces with Brockenhurst councillor Maureen Holding.

She said: "The Forest's ecology will change forever unless we can keep the people who have preserved the area very successfully for 900 years.

"If nothing is done, commoners will continue to drain away because they can't afford to live here."

Cllr Holding said the provision of holdings for rent would recognise the contribution that commoning made to the preservation of the New Forest landscape. If commoning is to continue, young people need to obtain property and land that allows them to maintain long-standing family traditions," she said.

Richard Manley, chairman of the Commoners' Defence Association, said: "Statutory bodies have recognised that commoning is vital to the conservation of the Forest.

"But house prices in the area have risen far faster than incomes, and there is now a huge difference between affordability and achieveability.

"It's got to the point where we are losing people, especially young people." Last year a survey showed that first-time buyers now need a salary of at least £30,000 to purchase a house in the Forest.

The cost of renting has also soared, putting properties way beyond the reach of many young people on limited incomes.