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Landowners can help solve the rural housing crisis
Report suggests ways to help landowners provide affordable housing for local communities
A new paper released by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) argues that rural landowners can play a crucial role in solving England’s rural housing crisis, and sets out ways to better enable them to do so [1].
Under current policy, rural landowners can provide sites at below-market prices to build housing for local people in need – but recent legal and financial changes have made this increasingly difficult. On Solid Ground shows how we could make it easier for landowners to offer their land for affordable housing, including through changes to tax legislation and to councils’ waiting list systems for social housing.
Rural communities are particularly hard-hit by dwindling affordable housing stock: 8% of rural housing is classed as affordable compared to 20% in urban areas [2]. This has seen the average age in rural communities rise as young people are priced out, and services like post offices, pubs and shops have closed as workers and potential customers are forced to move elsewhere [3].
Trinley Walker, policy and research adviser at the Campaign to Protect Rural England, comments:
“Landowners understand the pressures facing rural communities, and they are uniquely placed to help keep these towns and villages thriving. There is a clear appetite among landowners to help create affordable housing for local people, but the current system discourages them from doing so.
“Government must do more to address the lack of affordable housing in rural areas. Removing some of the obstacles preventing landowners from providing land is a straightforward way to get more houses built for those who need them.”
Members of the CLA provide nearly 40% of all private rented housing in rural areas [4]. CLA President Ross Murray says: “Landowners have strong multi-generational ties to their communities and are often local employers so are well-placed to help increase the supply of affordable homes. We want life in our villages – to support young families, local workers and those in the community who are ready to downsize. At a time when housing costs are spiralling, providing more affordable housing is an excellent way to sustain rural communities for future generations and ensure people have the opportunity to live and work in the countryside.”
To support rural landowners in providing land for affordable housing, CPRE’s new paper proposes:
- Giving landowners power to ensure that their land will benefit people with local connections. Landowners would be more inclined to provide land for affordable housing if they had more confidence that this would directly benefit those in their local community [5]. The paper suggests changes to letting systems, many of which currently don’t allow for prioritising local tenants.
- Fewer tax barriers that discourage landowners from providing affordable housing. The current tax system is unfavourable to landowners who let their land to housing associations or directly to tenants. The paper suggests measures that would see landowners paying reduced tax on profits from providing affordable housing, and being able to offset losses from these investments against other taxable income.
‘On Solid Ground’ is the seventh paper in in CPRE’s Housing Foresight series, which aims to provide innovative policy solutions to critical housing issues.
Please see our feature on getting affordable homes built in Kent – click here.
Plus, Sue Chalkley, Chief Executive of Hastoe was the speaker at our AGM on November 18th – to view her presentation click here.
To see CPRE’s comments on the forthcoming Housing White Paper and our demands for measures we believe should be prioritised click here.
Notes:
[1] On Solid Ground: Encouraging landowners to invest in rural affordable housing, CPRE, 2016. This research was kindly supported by Hastoe Housing Group.
[2] Department for Communities and Local Government, English housing survey, 2011
[3] Between the 2001 and 2011 Censuses, a 3.6% decrease was observed in rural areas in the volume of the population aged between 30-44. This is compared to a 1.7% decrease in urban areas. (Office for National Statistics, 2011 Census Analysis – Comparing Rural and Urban Areas of England and Wales, 2013. Available at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_337939.pdf)
[4] The CLA represents 32,000 landowners, farmers and rural businesses. The CLA says its members are keen to build and manage their own affordable homes as part of the housing mix, but that they are often put off making more land available for affordable projects over concerns the homes will not stay affordable for the community in perpetuity. They are also concerned by a tax system that does not encourage releasing land for affordable housing.
[5] In a 2011 survey, 75% of estate owners stated ‘acting to benefit the community’ as a reason why they would consider putting forward a site for affordable housing.
(Smiths Gore. Incentivising landowners to release sites for affordable housing: A report to Lincolnshire Rural Affordable Housing Partnership, 2011.)
- A number of important documents have yet to emerge. For example, a rigorous transport plan and a finalised air-quality assessment. The latter is critical given that allocations at Teynham will feed extra traffic into AQMAs.
- There seems to be no coherent plan for infrastructure delivery – a key component of the plan given the allocations being proposed near the already crowded Junction 7.
- There seems to have been little or no cooperation with neighbouring boroughs or even parish councils within Swale itself.
The removal of a second consultation might have been understandable if this final version of the plan were similar to that being talked about at the beginning of the consultation process. It is, however, radically different in the following ways:
- There has been a major shift in the balance of housing allocations, away from the west of the borough over to the east, especially around the historic town of Faversham. This is a move that raises many concerns.
- A new large allocation, with accompanying A2 bypass, has appeared around Teynham and Lynsted, to which we are objecting.
- Housing allocations in the AONB around Neames Forstal that were judged “unsuitable” by the council’s own officers have now appeared as part of the housing numbers.
- Most of the housing allocations being proposed are on greenfield sites, many of them on Grade 1 agricultural land – a point to which we are strongly objecting.
Concerns about the rush to submit the plan
The haste with which the plan is being prepared is especially worrying given the concentration of housing in Faversham. If the town is to take a large amount of new housing, it is imperative that the policies concerning the area are carefully worked out to preserve, as far as possible, the unique nature of the town. The rush to submit the plan is likely to prove detrimental.
As Swale does not have a five-year land housing supply, it is open to speculative development proposals, many of which would run counter to the ideas contained in the current plan. Some are already appearing. This is a common situation, and one that, doubtless, is a reason behind Swale’s haste.
Our overriding fear, however, is that this emphasis on haste is ultimately going to prove counterproductive. This is because it is our view that the plan, in its current form, is unlikely to pass independent examination. We are urging Swale to listen to and act upon the comments being made about the plan and to return the plan to the council with appropriate modifications before submitting it to the Secretary of State.
Essentially, this means treating the current consultation not as the final one but as the ‘lost’ second consultation.
The consultation ends on Friday 30 April and we strongly urge residents to make their opinions known if they have not already done so.
Further information
