At a time when everyone’s major concern is the lack of mortgages, repossession and the turbulent housing market, it’s nice to see the spirit of community still shining through. There’s no better recent example of this than in Bridport where schoolboy Jamie Thomas has been allowed to name a new housing development in the village of Charmouth.

Jamie named the development ‘Heritage Mews’ and says he came up with the idea because he hunts fossils along the nearby heritage coastline. The new estate is designed to be for local families who have been priced out of the market by second home buyers and will comprise 3 houses and 8 flats, all for rent.

After reports last week that over 1 million UK homeowners have used a credit card to make mortgage payments, we weren’t the only ones to raise concerns. Co-owner of  the Homeowners Advice Centre, Chris Jenkins has made it clear that using plastic to stop repossession is a losing battle as unless you take action to change your situation, your credit will run out and repossession will still be a possibility.

The stats on this were released by housing charity Shelter which are urging people not to go down this road as in the long term, paying a mortgage by credit card can only leave you with even more debt and more financial problems.