The government has relaunched the £60m Community Housing Fund in a bid to enable local rural communities to control the housing situation in their area.
Announced on Monday (27 November) at the National Community-Led Housing Conference by Housing Minister Alok Sharma, the plans hope to boost the number of affordable homes in the countryside.
The fund, which was originally announced in 2016, brings forward new housing schemes which are right for particular areas.
This approach has been particularly successful in rural areas, where many young people are being priced out of their local communities as incoming retired buyers, second homes and holiday lets push local house prices further and further out of their reach.
The announcement follows news of concern raised by rural communities over the lack of housing policies for rural areas in the recent Autumn Budget.
Many policies in the Autumn Budget announced on 22 November showed support for general house building across the country such as reductions in stamp duty, a commitment to simplify planning law, and new financial support, but there was a concern by the lack of policies designed to address the challenge in the countryside.
'Excellent incentive'
However, rural housing specialists Hastoe Group said news of the fund is an "excellent" incentive to help bring forward more "desperately needed" affordable homes in rural areas.
Hastoe Chief Executive Sue Chalkley said: “Whether delivered entirely by a housing association, by a Community Land Trust (CLT), or any other local housing arrangement, the community-led development model works and has seen the delivery of thousands of genuinely affordable homes for rural communities.
“Most importantly, these community-led projects create a sense of achievement and pride for all involved – helping other local communities to see the value of schemes like this as a viable option to keep local people in the villages they were born or grew up in.
“This is surely the way forward in helping to ease the crisis of affordability and availability currently faced by rural communities across the country.”
