Rural housing crisis 'tearing communities apart', countryside charity warns

Rates of rough sleeping in some countryside areas now exceed those in some major cities, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) claims today.

As it calls for action to ease a deepening crisis, it warns over widening divides with claims that in some rural areas, low wages and high rents are pricing people and families out after generations.

"The rural housing crisis is tearing communities apart, with homelessness soaring and rough sleeping now worse in some countryside areas than it is in our biggest cities," said CPRE head of policy and planning Paul Miner.

Homelessness in the countryside has surged by 73 per cent since 2018, new analysis from the charity claims today, with nearly 28,000 people homeless in rural areas.

But at the same time completions for new social housing properties has plummeted by a third since 2012, with just 2,831 social homes built in rural England last year.

The countryside charity claims that 12 rural local authority areas now have higher rates of rough sleeping than the national average - and seven areas higher than that in London.

York is among the cities listed in official Government data with one of the lowest rates of homelessness nationwide, at 0.81 per 100,000 people. In comparison, rural North Yorkshire's rate is 1.25. Outside of London, the national average is 1.58.

CPRE wants the government to redefine what it terms as ‘affordable’ housing.

It warns there is an extreme disparity between rural rents and house prices, which are higher than those in other parts of the country, and rural wages, which are much lower.

TURN TO PAGE 2.

As parliament considers a Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the CPRE is calling for ambitious targets for affordable and social rented homes, prioritising "shovel-ready" brownfield sites.

A statutory definition of affordable housing must be created, it adds, linked to local incomes rather than market rates which means many homes are "out of reach" for ordinary people.

The social housing waiting list in rural areas now stands at around 300,000 people, it adds, with a backlog that would take 82 years to clear at current building rates.

Mr Miner said: "The Planning and Infrastructure Bill could transform how we deliver genuinely affordable homes by tackling the stranglehold of big developers, redefining 'affordable' based on local incomes, and setting meaningful targets for social housing and genuinely affordable homes.

"With 300,000 rural people on waiting lists and a backlog that would take 82 years to clear, it’s time for the Government to act."

A Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We’re taking urgent action to fix the broken system we inherited through our Plan for Change and to build the homes local people need across the UK, including in rural areas.

“We're injecting £2bn to help deliver the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation, investing in homelessness services, and bringing forward overdue reforms to the Right to Buy scheme that will protect the stock of existing social housing.”