Affordable homes for rural communities
Rural communities will benefit from more affordable homes to meet their needs, Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said today in a joint policy announcement with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Launching Defra's Five Year Plan, Mrs Beckett said:
"Defra's challenge over the next five years is to support sustainable communities. That means a high quality environment, fair access to local services, and tackling rural social exclusion wherever it occurs.
"But in all our discussions with rural communities one theme comes out above any other - the need for affordable housing.
"Rural residents want their children to be able to afford to live in the towns and villages where they were brought up, and rural businesses and public services cannot operate without housing for their employees."
Together with Keith Hill, ODPM Minister for Housing and Planning, Margaret Beckett confirmed that the Government will keep the rural exceptions policy, which allows councils to give planning permission to much needed affordable homes in rural areas. Together they also confirmed that Planning Policy Guidance (PPG3) will be designed to enable rural affordable housing on sites that would otherwise not be available for development, where those homes meet the affordable housing needs of local people.
Keith Hill said:
"Young people growing up in rural communities are too often finding themselves priced out of the market, unable to find somewhere to live in the place they have always called home. This is not acceptable.
"The rural exceptions policy will get affordable homes to the people who need them most. We have listened to local councils and the rural communities who told us we should keep the exceptions policy as it can make a real difference This is in addition to enabling local planning authorities to allocate sites solely for affordable housing.
"The five year plan published by Defra today is all about creating thriving rural communities. The rural exceptions policy will allow the planning system to do its part."
Mrs Beckett also highlighted additional support for rural affordable housing through the Spending Review. She reinforced commitment to
the Rural Housing Enabler scheme, which involves Rural Community Councils, local councils and other key rural groups in the development of local housing solutions. With our partners, we will explore ways of improving the cost effectiveness of smaller developments to so that rural areas are not disadvantaged in our push for value for money.
Greater devolution to local level is a central theme of the Defra Five Year Plan for rural areas. Earlier this year the Department outlined, in the Rural Strategy 2004, its plans to modernising rural delivery. These plans drive forward the sustainable development agenda, ensuring that economic, social and environmental needs are addressed in a holistic manner in the new delivery arrangements. Particular emphasis is given to lagging areas, where poor economic performance is often coupled with social deprivation.
To ensure need is more effectively targeted, Defra has built on its improved rural evidence base and identified specific objectives, to:
* Strengthen the network of rural partners, including local authorities, parish councils, Regional Development Agencies, Government Offices, and the voluntary and community sector
* Increase the devolution of funding and decision-making to local and very local level, empowering communities to set their own priorities
* Improve targeting of resources, to ensure specific local needs are met more effectively, and to better reach the minority of rural areas that are lagging economically
* Develop and share best practice through a programme of regional Pathfinder pilots
* Simplify the rural funding framework, reducing over 100 schemes to three major funding programmes, making things easier for the customer
* Enhance the role of the regional rural affairs forums, building a stronger voice for rural people direct to Government
* Establish a new relationship between policy-making and service delivery, with fewer organisations operating with clearer roles, streamlined administration and legislation, and the removal of organisational barriers
* Through the Modernising Rural Delivery Bill, create a new Integrated Agency, a powerful independent body to conserve and enhance nature while achieving social and economic benefits such as improving access to it for all of us by bringing together the work of English Nature, the Countryside Agency, and the Rural Development Service
* Establish a New Countryside Agency, providing a powerful independent new voice for rural people, focusing its effort on rural disadvantage, providing expert advice to the Government on the issues facing rural communities, and challenging Government at all levels, and
* Work with other departments to ensure that rural needs are always taken into account when policies are developed.
Mrs Beckett said today:
"There can be no doubting the commitment of my Department to deliver this radical and ambitious programme.
"The reforms we are proposing over the next five years have been informed by the most detailed rural evidence base there has ever been, and are designed to deliver genuinely sustainable benefits, ensuring that the social and economic needs of communities are balanced with the responsibility to protect and enhance our natural heritage. Today's Five Year Plan underlines Defra's commitment to achieving that balance".
