A FAMILY has told how they are being forced to move 250miles to Wales after being given a shock eviction notice.
Mum-of-three Rae Layton, 43, from Ponsanooth, Cornwall says a housing officer told her they should look at moving away from all their friends and family as a holiday.
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They had been renting their home but were slapped with an eviction notice in April.
It gave Rae until July to get a new home – but because of rent increases, she has not been able to find anything so far.
Now Cornwall Council says they may have to pack up their lives and move to Cardiff for emergency accommodation.
Rae told Berkshire Live: “The council worker told me that my kids can look at it as a holiday.
“She didn’t mean anything bad by it but it’s just a horrible situation to be in. On the 22nd April I got an email saying she wanted us out. I get it, I get all of it.
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“People should be able to go fair enough and get another rental property. But people are demanding increasing rental prices.”
Rae says the idea of having to leave behind everything they know has been hitting the family hard.
She said: “My son has been in that house since he was born. I moved from pillar to post when I was growing up and I hated it. They’ve all got friends. My best friend lives two days away from me, every evening we see each other.
”There’s such a big support network that I’m gonna miss. All the parents watch everyone’s kids. At the minute, I have to send off all my paperwork.
“There aren’t any properties. They want to put me in emergency accommodation, my friends have been in one for six months. She’s been pushed here, there and everywhere.
“I think when she told me I kind of thought ‘no’. I just laid there at night, thinking what would I do. The kids wouldn’t be able to go to school as they wouldn’t have an address.”
Rae added: “All my friends live on my road. It’s the government that are doing it, they need to change it.”
A Cornwall Council spokesperson said: ”We do everything possible to keep residents within their own communities.
“The council has established emergency accommodation and is buying and refurbishing homes to provide medium-term temporary accommodation, but the current unprecedented demand does mean that we are having to use emergency accommodation hotels.
”In a very small number of instances, we may have to offer accommodation outside Cornwall in the short term and as a last resort.
“We seek to move people back as soon as we can to Cornwall and continue to offer support to help them find long-term homes.”
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