The State of Rural Affordable Housing in England:
Many parts of rural England have a housing affordability problem. The reasons for the shortage of affordable homes for people are widely disputed. But people in housing needs within rural areas find themselves at the acute end of the crisis, faced with stagnating wages and rising housing costs.
A proliferation of second homes and properties being converted into short-term lets has put further pressure on an already overheated housing market. This is having a devastating impact on life in the countryside, with many people forced to leave the communities they love and call home, draining skills and economic activity across the country, and undermining the provision of vital public services.
In this report, CPRE, the countryside charity aims to increase understanding of the issues surrounding the supply of rural affordable housing, what actually constitutes ‘affordable’ housing, and what policies are currently in place to support affordable housing delivery.
The definition of affordable housing in national planning policy does not enable the delivery of genuinely affordable homes. Rural social-rented delivery has plummeted with just 348 homes delivered in 2020/21 and 3,282 delivered in 2021/22, whilst general ‘affordable’ housing delivery has increased with 21, 826 general affordable homes delivered in 2020/21 and 25,294 delivered in 2021/22. This shows it is more viable for developers to deliver intermediate and discount market housing rather than lower-rent homes that are desperately needed.
Rural social housing waiting lists have risen since 2020/21 in all but two regions in England. It would take 89 years to clear the social housing waiting list under the current build rate.
Rural homelessness has increased by 20% since 2020/21 and 40% since 2018/19.
As many as half of all parish councils in rural England are not covered by ‘Section 157’ regulations which generally prevent resale of affordable housing units at market prices or as second homes.
Rural exception site policy is being utilized to deliver housing in line with locally assessed needs, however, its impact is limited to a relatively few areas of the country and it is not clear whether the mechanism is a particularly effective means of providing social housing as opposed to other planning policies.
The current mechanism for securing affordable housing in new developments is via planning agreements where developers can negotiate the proportion of affordable homes delivered down due to viability concerns. The proposed infrastructure levy regime may lead to an increase in affordable housing delivery as the contribution will be non-negotiable and should therefore be factored into the cost of the development from the outset.
Changes of use from office space to residential conversions under permitted development rights are delivering limited amounts of affordable housing of poor quality.
Government must redefine the term ‘affordable housing’ so that the cost of new affordable homes for sale or rent is directly linked to average local incomes. Where homes are not linked to average local incomes they should not be classed as affordable, as this obscures the type of housing that is being delivered.
Hope value should be reformed to increase the viability of social housing provision and enable Local Authorities to deliver additional social rented homes. Alongside this, national minimum requirements for affordable housing should be increased, with specific targets set for socially rented homes.
The government should show greater support for rural communities using neighborhood planning and rural exception sites to deliver small-scale affordable housing on the edge of villages in line with locally assessed need. This includes making grant funding available and aligning planning policy with funding pots to enable social rented housing to come forward on such sites.
Both government and local authorities must show greater support for community-led development, where it meets a local need.