ROOF Blog

New research from the National Housing Federation reveals north England’s rural population has been ‘overlooked’ by policy makers, while facing the dual challenge of ‘staggeringly’ high house prices and ‘crippling’ low incomes. The research found that 86 per cent of the north’s most expensive house price districts are predominantly rural and almost 66 per cent of England’s most deprived rural areas are in the north. The federation has called for the government to create a ‘northern rural way initiative’ to combat the current economic crisis.

A Campaign to Protect Rural England study has accused developers of concreting over greenfield land, rather than build on brownfield sites, because the land is easier to build on and the houses can be sold for more. The CPRE wants tighter restrictions on the scale, location and timing of greenfield land release and more incentives for developers to build on brownfield land first.

The planning system must not become a ‘tool for promoting economic development’, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) said, setting out its vision for the future of the English countryside. The CPRE describes the countryside it wants to see by 2026, its centenary year, as where urban regeneration contributes to green space, affordable housing, vibrant neighbourhoods and people-friendly transport. It expects more than two million ‘high quality homes’ will have been built and energy efficient buildings and low carbon communities would be commonplace. It also wants more planning decisions to be taken locally.

More than 100,000 young adults will leave rural towns and villages in England in the next three years due to a shortage in affordable houses research by the National Housing Federation (NHF) has found. It estimated 103,000 people aged 24 to 35 will migrate out of rural places to urban locations by 2012, because they cannot afford to live there. Around 100,000 new affordable homes are needed to be built to meet demand in rural areas in the next 10 years. The Federation is launching a new campaign today aimed at tackling the housing crisis in the countryside.

A committee of Scottish MPs has accused the Scottish planning system of exacerbating the shortage of affordable housing in rural Scotland. The rural affairs and environment committee said the planning system is burdened by a centuries-old belief that the countryside should be protected from development, and called for an end to the ‘entrenched conservative planning culture’.

The government has today set out proposals for helping rural communities. It says it will relax planning restrictions to allow for more affordable housing, but the government has rejected calls to restrict the growth of second homes in rural areas. Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor on whose report the government’s proposals are based, broadly welcomed the response, but warned that ‘dozens’ of villages will die unless the wealthy are stopped from buying holiday homes in ‘desirable areas’.

People living in mid-Suffolk have the best quality of life in rural Britain, new research claims. It has higher than average home ownership at 77 per cent, and residents there are among the healthiest in the UK, while babies born there are expected to live until 80. People in south Cambridgeshire were found to have the next best quality of life, followed by those in east Hertfordshire. Overall, the east of England has seven of the top 10 rural areas for the best quality of life.

The Rural Services Network has said the needs of rural elderly people risk being marginalised and warned that meeting their housing and care needs was becoming critical. The network says that rural services are stretched, budgets are strained and specialist housing was nowhere near the standard in urban areas.

The government is focusing on the countryside with housing, broadband and business support programmes, including the building of 10,3000 low-cost houses by 2011. The support will be funded by £3.9 billion, more than double the budget pf the past six years.

A documentary has lifted the lid on rural people living in poverty, and shows the hardship and stigma faced by those living on a low income in the countryside. In the film people speak of having nowhere to live, of being unable to work because they cannot afford to run a car, or of living without a phone, TV or hot water.