The first rural affordable housing survey in the district will begin in Burley-in-Wharfedale next week.

Based at Ilkley Town Hall, Rural Housing Enabler Project officers Clare Hemming and Helen King are sending out questionnaires to all homes in the village on Monday.

Employed by Yorkshire Rural Community Council, the pair's remit is to find out exactly what the shortfall in provision of affordable property in Wharfedale is - and then recommend ways to fill the gap.

Starting in Burley, they will be asking local people to give honest answers to a wide range of questions and attitudes.

These will include:

l Details about how many people stay in their property

l How many rooms their homes have, and how old they are

l What the household's weekly net income is and

l What their feelings are about more affordable accommodation being made available locally.

After the Burley questionnaire has been completed, surveys will be carried out in Menston, Ben Rhydding, Ilkley and Addingham over the next 18 months.

In each case, Miss Hall and Miss King will talk to parish councils, community groups and local housing providers in a bid to increase the supply of housing for local people on average incomes.

Wharfedale, which is still riding the wave of a long-running property boom which has seen property prices soar, was identified as a priority area.

Miss King said: "The purpose of the survey is to determine the housing needs of the whole community including families, single people, and young couples setting up home for the first time. It will also look at older people whose circumstances may have changed and people with special needs or disabilities who need to be near family and support networks.

"We will adopt a flexible approach which looks at all types of housing provision including new build, rehabilitating older properties, shared ownership and rented.

"Burley will be the first one in the district. Menston have also shown an interest and we've been talking to Ilkley and Addingham Parish Councils, so we will be covering one after the other, in no particular order, over the next year or so.

"Hopefully, that will give us an idea about what exactly the housing needs of the area are, and how best to meet them."

The form can be returned by post but Burley Community Council (BCC), which has repeatedly highlighted the need for such a survey, has also agreed to manage collection boxes in the library and in the Open Door building.

The aim is for the findings to be used to produce a report in the summer which will identify the type and amount of affordable housing required in the village.

That will then be used in negotiations with developers about the amount of affordable housing which should be included in new developments. It will also influence discussions with companies looking to refurbish or convert older properties.

Chairman of BCC Bruce Speed said he welcomed the move. He said: "The project is one that we did ask for because the question of affordable housing keeps coming up, it's a recurring theme.

"We have to say that at the moment we're not clear about what the real demand is, so we need to know that and this survey should give us some answers about the scale of the problem.

"We also need to know if some of the money from developers who have worked in the village, which has been put into a Council pot, can be used in Burley."