Affordable Rural Housing Commission: CRC Taking Forward the Recommendations

We’re working with stakeholders to track progress on implementing the recommendations of the ARHC. The recommendations have the potential to allow rural communities to benefit from small developments of affordable housing that could make a real difference to their viability.

Our report Calculating Housing Needs in Rural England estimates that between 14,000 and 19,000 new affordable homes are needed annually to meet need in rural communities.

Work on this watchdog project includes:

• research into how rural housing needs are affected by in and out migration from rural communities
• a review of the rural approach within Regional Housing and Regional Spatial Strategies
• best practice case-studies demonstrating approaches to improve supply, such as sub-regional working, identifying sites by plan or market led approaches and building properties without use of public subsidy
• a discussion on ‘What do we mean by sustainable rural communities’, to influence how sustainability, in a rural context, is taken forward by regional and local planning bodies
• a housing conference in June, reporting our findings on the progress in taking the ARHC recommendations forward, and what happens next

A progress report on how the ARHC recommendations have been taken forward will be published later in the year.

The Government set up the ARHC in July 2005 to identify ways of improving access to affordable housing in rural areas. This reflected ongoing concerns over the gap between house prices and earnings in many rural communities, and difficulties in the delivery of new affordable housing. Their report made a number of practical recommendations, for Government and others involved in enabling and delivering affordable housing in rural communities, which have been well received across the sector.

More urgent action is needed to ensure these recommendations are taken forward. We welcome the changes in planning policy with the introduction of PPS3, but it’s essential that momentum is maintained through:

• real change in the funding of affordable rural housing
• the implementation of a plan led approach to planning policy
• accepted approaches to understanding rural housing needs