Shared homes demand comes from a drive in local industry jobs
Barrow-in-Furness have experienced a huge increase in shared homes as a result of demand from contractors working in local industry, a property developer has claimed.
Years ago, the port town was only home to one house in multiple occupation (HMO), however, figures from Westmorland and Furness Council show the town now has 80. According to Larimar Property Management, this is as a result of more people moving to the area to work at the BAE shipyard and other companies.
At the beginning of 2024, BAE Systems, a British multinational aerospace, defence and information security company, announced they were adding 5,000 workers to its force of 12,000 Barrow workers, due to winning a contract to build a new generation of nuclear-powered submarines. This deal is part of the UK’s so-called Aukus security pact with Australia and the US.
BAE has said they will be ‘the largest, most powerful and advanced attack submarines the Royal Navy has ever operated.’
Due to people moving to the town, Larimar Property Management – a Barrow-based organisation – have more than 70 houses which are HMOs and charge £130 to £140 per week with bills included per room.
Beverly Louw, of Larminar Property Management, said: ‘We’re always inundated with requests for accommodation and our main market is the contractors coming into the area.’
She added that the majority of requests have come from people connected to BAE, but some people are associated with the ‘gas terminal, wind farms, as well as Kimberly-Clark.’
Hartington Street in Barrow is home to 10% of the registered HMOs, which are traditionally big Victorian houses that have been split into bedsits, flats and rooms in shared houses.
Image: Cosmic Timetraveler
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