More housing for rural areas

The Government will increase social housing and shared ownership housing in villages and will set a target for the number of affordable homes built in rural areas as part of plans announced to help first-time buyers get on the housing ladder in the regions towns and villages.

The target is expected to be set this Autumn.

Actions to relieve pressure on rural housing hot-spots shot to the top of Housing Minister Yvette Cooper’s agenda as she set out a package of proposals aimed at tackling the rural ‘housing crisis’.

Steps set out in today’s Green Paper include:

A taskforce (the Housing Corporation’s Rural Housing Advisory Group) to look into how to better meet the challenges faced in rural communities.

Seven new innovative schemes (Community Land Trusts) to be set up in rural areas with the aim of boosting supply and financing of affordable housing – these are Holdsworthy in Devon, St Miniver in Cornwall, Buckland Newton in Dorset, Worth Matravers in Dorset, Carhampton and Withycombe in Somerset, Bishops Castle in Shropshire, Chipping in Lancashire.

The plans build on recent changes to planning policy (PPS3) giving councils more power to address demand for affordable housing – including the power to set affordable housing thresholds for smaller sites.

The pledge to boost supply and improve affordability came alongside a commitment to provide high quality housing that contributes to the creation and maintenance of sustainable rural communities in market towns and villages.

Rural towns and villages are already sharing in a quarter of a billion pounds set aside for more affordable housing between 2006/08.

The cash is helping to deliver 6,000 homes in small towns and villages with populations under 10,000.

There were almost 3,000 more new affordable homes built in rural areas last year compared with the previous year - a rise of over 40 per cent.

More than 50 per cent of local councils with the highest house prices to income ratio are in rural areas.

Only one in ten (11 per cent) homes in rural areas are social housing for rent – half the proportion in urban areas (21 per cent).

New guidance will be drawn together for rural communities on how to get more affordable homes.