The Housing Corporation was asked by Housing Minister Yvette Cooper to set up and chair the Rural Housing Advisory Group, which will report annually into the Communities and Local Government department.
The group will be chaired by Candy Atherton, Board member of the Housing Corporation with lead responsibility for rural housing. Members will include former Affordable Rural Housing Commission (ARHC) commissioners, representatives of rural interest groups such as the Commission for Rural Communities, and experts in housing delivery.
Housing Minister Yvette Cooper said:
"We agreed with the Affordable Rural Housing Commission report that we need more affordable homes in rural areas to help families stay in the countryside. That is why we have already changed the planning guidance to support more affordable homes, particularly on smaller sites in rural areas. The Rural Housing Advisory Group will explore genuinely innovative mechanisms to increase the supply of affordable homes in rural areas. Schemes like Community Land Trusts, Land Swap Levies and community bonds could help deliver more affordable rural housing with more effective use of the public purse."
Alongside this announcement, the Housing Corporation published its revised Rural Housing Strategy, to continue and enhance the Corporation's work in rural areas.
Rural housing delivery has improved considerably since the publication of the first Corporation strategy in 2001 with annual completions more than doubled, from around 1,200 in 2000/01 to forecast completions of 2,255 in 2006/07.
However the revised strategy acknowledges that this falls short of meeting all the needs. The new Rural Housing Strategy covers areas such as:
Creating and sustaining partnerships to deliver more affordable housing for rent and affordable home ownership in rural areas;
Sustaining and making the best use of the existing social housing in rural areas;
Creating sustainable rural communities, combating social exclusion, and tackling dispersed disadvantage in rural areas;
Finding innovative ways of increasing the supply of land for rural housing while protecting the integrity of the countryside;
Supporting and promoting low-cost home ownership in rural areas, with appropriate safeguards to ensure a supply of affordable housing into the future;
Promoting good design and the use of locally sourced materials in housing association schemes; and
Ensuring all homes built in rural schemes are sustainable and 'green.'
