Government falls short on housing

The Government’s latest plans to guarantee affordable housing supply don’t go far enough, says the Countryside Alliance.
 
The Department of Communities and Local Government has announced plans to develop and guarantee long-term affordable housing in rural areas. The government has designated 13,000 small rural settlements as ‘protected’ areas where affordable homes will have to remain in shared ownership with local housing associations; ensuring affordable housing for generations to come.
 
The Countryside Alliance believes more still needs to be done to ensure future demand is met. Countryside Alliance’s head of housing, James Legge, said: “While these announcements are a step in the right direction, a broader range of measures are needed to enable rural communities to develop the affordable homes which they so desperately need.
 
“The present and future governments must deliver long term and realistic solutions to meet the demand for affordable rural housing. This is essential if local communities are to meet their affordable housing needs both now and in the future.
 
“Landowners need real incentives to release land to increase the supply for development. A reduction on the rate of VAT to 5% on all repair, maintenance and home improvement work would encourage the repair and re-use of the estimated 960,000 empty homes in the UK, which will help to protect the countryside and help to meet the desperate need for social housing in rural areas. The use of ‘exception sites’ (sites in small villages which have not been allocated for development by local governments) are suitable for small scale housing schemes and could be extended responsibly.”
 
www.countryside-alliance.org.uk/blogcategory/rural-manifesto/