The farming industry and rural businesses have told of their concern by the lack of policies designed to address the housing challenges in the countryside.
The need for new housing is vital for many rural communities, where there are often unique challenges and requirements for delivering new homes.
Many policies in the Autumn Budget announced on Wednesday (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, there is concern by the lack of policies designed to address the challenge in rural areas.
The Chancellor has focused on large scale developments through new ‘garden cities’, and increasing the housing density in urban areas. But the Countryside Alliance has criticised this approach, saying Mr Hammond should have embraced innovative policies to support small scale sustainable developments that represent local demand.
He has acknowledged this by stating “we will focus on the urban areas where people want to live and work, and where most jobs are created”.
Rural depopulation
A failure to recognise the pressing need for affordable housing in rural areas may drive young people towards cities and towns, leaving the countryside to face up to the negative consequences of depopulation.
Indeed, a lack of new affordable housing is already driving young families and working-age people out of rural areas according to new figures.
In 2016, the cheapest homes in rural areas were 8.3 times the income of typical first-time buyers, considerably higher than in urban areas.
The Countryside Alliance is also stating the need for the essential amenity of high speed fibre broadband in rural areas, saying the Chancellor missed the opportunity to give a commitment that all new homes will be built with the ability to connect to a broadband speed of at least 10Mbit per second.
'Concerned'
Sarah Lee, Head of Policy at the Countryside Alliance, commented: “The Chancellor has outlined a number of policy and investment commitments designed to boost house building and home ownership, but we are concerned that not enough of this will benefit people in rural areas.
“There is a growing trend of young people having to move out of the communities in which they were born and brought up because they cannot find affordable local housing, and the Chancellor’s approach risks accelerating rather than reversing this trend.
“Post Brexit, the countryside has a key role to play in boosting our productivity and must get its fair share of the measures announced in the Budget from housing to 5G and high speed broadband delivery”.
