Campaign for affordable homes in countryside searches for sites

RURAL communities will get the chance this autumn to pinpoint development sites in market towns and villages under a multi-million pound house-building programme to counter a critical lack of affordable homes.

Efforts are underway to provide more than 5,000 new homes across the Harrogate district in the next 14 years amid concerns over the escalating price of homes which has left the vast majority of first-time buyers unable to get on the property ladder.

A major public consultation is being launched next month by Harrogate Council in an attempt to locate the most appropriate development sites for the massive housebuilding programme in rural areas.

The authority has set a housing growth target of 390 new dwellings for each year throughout the Harrogate district up to 2023/24 to try and provide homes at a price tag which is affordable to local people.

Nearly 1,200 of the new homes have been earmarked for villages and market towns in the district to ensure the targets can be met.

Council cabinet member for planning, transport and economic development Coun Don Mackenzie admitted the problem of soaring house prices had been most keenly felt in rural communities. “Many parents living in these villages do not want to see their children move away, but many are left with little choice because of the price of property.

“This consultation is seeking to put both us at the council and local people in charge of where the homes should be built. We want to have a clear plan as to where the homes should be located, rather than a piecemeal approach with developers pushing through individual planning applications.”

The Harrogate district falls within the so-called Golden Triangle along with York and Leeds and includes some of the most sought-after postcodes in the North for househunters.

The average property price in the district for the first three months of this year was 277,332, which represented a 14.7 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2009. A detached property in the Harrogate district costs, on average, nearly 400,000.

The housebuilding targets to provide more affordable accommodation have been set out in the Harrogate district core strategy, which was adopted by the council in February of last year.

While development will be focused on the district’s more urban areas, including Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon, the high demand for affordable housing in rural communities will mean homes will also be built in smaller settlements.

A total of 671 new dwellings will be built in the district’s villages to meet the housing targets set out under the core strategy, with a further 175 homes in Boroughbridge, another 221 properties in Pateley Bridge and 112 earmarked for Masham.

The council has stressed that the strategy strikes a “good balance” between providing much-needed affordable homes while making sure that the district is not swamped by new housing developments. Coun Mackenzie maintained that house-building schemes would be focused on rural areas which already had post offices, parks, play areas and bus services. The eight-week consultation begins on October 1, and will give the public the chance to outline their views on the proposed development in the district’s rural areas including villages and market towns.

Another round of consultations is due to be held next year to focus on proposed housebuilding programmes in the district’s urban areas.

Royal Mail will deliver a consultation newspaper from the council to rural areas with a questionnaire. There will be six exhibitions during the consultation period.

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