A Place in the Country? - National Housing Federation (NHF)
New research launched by the NHF reveals that the North's 2.3 million rural residents have been overlooked by policy makers. The research calls for a Northern Rural Way Initiative to save our village way of life.
The North's rural communities house as many people as Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Liverpool put together. However, the Federation's report, A Place in the Country?, reveals the dire consequences for residents who can be short-changed by national and regional policy makers.
Northern villages face the dual challenges of staggeringly high house prices and crippling low incomes. 13 out of the 15 of the North's most expensive house price districts are predominately rural Almost two thirds of England's most deprived rural areas are in the North
Many of these imperil led communities lie in a Northern Rural Triangle covering large parts of the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humberside
Getting a foot on the property ladder is beyond the means of most local residents. Because rural incomes are well below average, local families and young adults are increasingly being priced out of their home villages, undermining critical local services and amenities, like schools and shops.
The Federation is campaigning for more affordable rural housing to stop rural England turning into a theme park for visitors and the wealthy. It is calling on the Government to create a Northern Rural Way Initiative, which would provide a sharper, pan-regional focus on rural communities, provide the resources for piloting new initiatives and create a resource for the North to combat the current economic crisis.
Great Expectations: Management of Land Supply for Affordable Housing - Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)
Private developers, local councils and housing associations must work better together to manage land supply more efficiently if we are to boost the supply of affordable housing coming out of the economic downturn.
A report from the CIH has found that poor grasp of land economics, over-reliance on section 106, aversion to risk and lack of understanding of the roles of other players in the complex land supply chain are hindering the provision of land for affordable housing.
The report concludes that housing organisations must invest in the skills to value land, assess project viability and negotiate harder on price. Local councils must negotiate better with private developers on planning conditions, and should be proactive to ensure land is available for different types and sizes of developer.
Direct development should be more widely used to provide new affordable homes, and this may require the Homes and Communities Agency to review its own approaches.
During the recession, flexibility and regularly updated local knowledge are essential for a ll partners to maximise supply of new homes. Close working relationships between the housing and planning professions will be central to success.
Abigail Davies, CIH Head of Policy and co-author of the report, said:
"Land supply management has been seen as the key to new housing supply for some time, but it is more important than ever as we prepare for a recovery.
"Our approaches to managing land supply for affordable housing during the boom were not very effective and we must address these policy and practice problems whilst we have the chance.
"In particular, we need to consider whether there can be a framework that can deliver affordable housing without over-dependence on either public or private funding, where no one supply model is dominant, and where supply can be maintained and kept constant through changes in the wider market."
