New powers to help keep homes affordable for communities in rural areas were set out as Housing Minister Iain Wright launched two consultations.
Under the proposed new powers, rural communities with severe housing shortages could be designated as protected areas, thus ensuring affordable housing is retained for local families.
The new proposals would also enable all affordable housing providers in these protected areas to retain a share in new shared ownership homes, or have the first option to buy back such properties, ensuring they remain available for future families in the local community.
In a further measure announced, first-time buyers in rural areas could own a home for as little as £60,000 through a consultation to expand Community Land Trusts (CLTs). Through CLTs, buyers only pay for the building - not the land, of a property. For example, Holsworthy Community Property Trust in Devon is already offering local people flats that cost £115,000 for prices as low as £59,500.
Matthew Taylor's recent independent review on rural housing found low supply of housing in rural areas is holding our rural communities back, and recommended a new drive to boost rural jobs and community led affordable housing.
There is a need for more market homes to meet the needs of rural communities. The planning policy for housing (PPS3) already puts the onus on local authorities to determine the right level of housing in the right places, taking full account of evidence of local need and demand. It makes clear that councils can enable small sites in rural areas to be used specifically for affordable housing in and around villages, and provide affordable housing in perpetuity to meet local needs.
Councils also have the flexibility to lower the thresholds above which new development should include affordable housing.
HomeBuy Direct is part of a package of measures announced by the Government early in September. The Housing Corporation have now opened the competition to select suitable schemes and properties from house-builders.
HomeBuy Direct aims to:
Providers are now being invited to bring forward suitable schemes and properties to participate in the delivery of the new product. Both the scheme developer and the Housing Corporation will make an equal contribution by way of an equity loan to assist a purchaser into home ownership.
HomeBuy Direct will be managed by the Housing Corporation and its successor, the Homes and Communities Agency when it is vested from 1 December 2008.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson took the first steps towards removing the 50% London wide affordable housing target, a key manifesto pledge, as he opened negotiations with London boroughs to agree a programme to deliver 50,000 affordable homes across the City over the next three years.
Instead of imposing the existing 'one size fits all' target from City Hall, which the Mayor claims is unsuitable in the current market, the Greater London Authority (GLA) will work with London boroughs to agree individual targets for the number of affordable homes they can deliver based on their unique local circumstances.
To begin this process, the GLA has written to every London borough, proposing an indicative target for affordable housing delivery over the next three years - taking into account local housing capacity, recent affordable housing delivery and any existing targets the boroughs have committed to.
Each borough will have the opportunity to present their own evidence in discussions with the GLA before final targets are agreed early in 2009.
The Mayor's view is that a more collaborative approach to working with boroughs will deliver the affordable homes that Londoners need and reduce the Capital's housing waiting lists.
The commitment to the housing investment target will be included in his draft London Housing Strategy, and the Mayor has pledged to alter his London Plan to remove prescriptive and what he believes are counter-productive targets, such as the 50% affordable housing target for new developments.
