Fewer affordable homes are being built in small villages in England because local authorities are continuing to ignore the potential of developing farmland, it is suggested.
A report from the Countryside Landowners Association (CLA) says that new Government data shows that despite a 17% increase in the total amount of new affordable homes built in small rural communities across England last year, 143 fewer homes were built on Rural Exception Sites, land which is not usually granted planning permission but where affordable development is allowed.
The CLA which represents landowners, farmers and rural businesses said that if Rural Exception Sites are not used to their full potential there is little hope of solving the acute shortage of rural housing.
‘Rural Exception Sites are a key means of providing affordable homes in rural areas where a landowner provides land at below market value to build affordable homes for local people,’ said CLA president Tim Breitmeyer.
‘However, the latest figures show how drastically underused they are. Our own report into making villages sustainable for the future set out ways to ensure local authorities use all the mechanisms available to deliver new rural affordable homes. They must be proactive in order to breathe new life into our rural communities and help to solve the rural housing crisis,’ he added.
To encourage the building of much needed affordable homes in rural areas, the CLA has called on the Government and local authorities to change sustainability criteria for rural settlements from an assessment of services the community has, to what it needs.
It explains that this ‘outdated’ assessment of the facilities and services that a rural settlement needs rarely takes into account broadband as important when considering areas for development. One step to achieving this change is to make housing needs assessments mandatory.
It is also calling for cross subsidy on Entry Level Exception Sites to be allowed as a small amount of open market housing on these sites could ensure viability for the landowner so that sites can be bought forward and developed.
Another suggestion is for affordable homes to be exempt from inheritance tax as 52% of CLA members say they would be more willing to build and manage affordable homes for rent for local people if the value of the housing was conditionally exempt from the tax while being let at an affordable rent.
The CLA also points out that more could be done to make sure local plans are up to date. It said that between 30% and 40% of local authorities still do not have up to date adopted local plans to deliver much needed housing. Even those with adopted plans do not provide sufficient detail to drive the delivery of local housing in small rural settlements.
Finally, is suggest that the process for landowners to manage affordable homes should be formalised as issues can arise when landowners want to build and manage affordable housing themselves. If the Government were to introduce a standard Section 106 agreement to allow this it would give local authorities greater confidence to grant planning consent, it added.
