Smaller rural communities will be encouraged to secure the development of affordable housing themselves if new proposals designed to tackle a lack of affordability get the go-ahead.

A new community led affordable housing initiative, encouraging rural communities to develop small groups of homes for local people to rent or buy, is included in the recommendations of Living working country, the independent review of rural housing by Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor.

Under the proposals, communities would be able to secure land for house building by using rural exception sites – land that would otherwise not be released for housing under conventional countryside planning.

Proposals would have to meet the criteria of local support and good design and also be affordable in perpetuity to meet local housing needs.

Delivery of community led affordable housing would not be through a single model, but the review suggested community land trusts as one possible route, with registered social landlords providing an alternative way forward.

The review, which was commissioned last summer by prime minister Gordon Brown, found the high cost of homes coupled with the low wages of rural workers had created unsustainable pressures that are threatening the future of rural communities.

Other recommendations include new planning policies encouraging sustainable neighbourhood extensions and flexible rules to support village businesses.

Mr Taylor said: ‘If we fail to build affordable homes to enable the people who work in the countryside to live there we risk turning our villages into gated communities of wealthy commuters and the retired. In many cases just a handful of well-designed homes, kept affordable in perpetuity for local people, will make all the difference to the sustainability of a village.’

Tom Oliver, head of rural policy at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said the proposal for community led affordable housing could secure ‘urgently needed affordable homes in perpetuity in rural villages’.

Fiona Mannion, senior policy officer at the Town and Country Planning Association, said: ‘Rather than poorly serviced mono-estates bolted-on to market towns, we must plan for new neighbourhoods and community extensions which offers a variety of tenure, all in sustainable communities where people want to live and work.’

The government will publish its response later in the year.

Living working country, www.communities.gov.uk

by Rosie Niven
rosie@newstartmag.co.uk