A rural housing crisis

Homelessness up 40% in rural England since 2018, and 300,000 people waiting for social housing

Home » A rural housing crisis

Published: November 28, 2023
This Article was written by: Katie Hill - My Green Pod
homel, homes, housing, money, policy, rural, society

0 Shares

An acute and overlooked shortage of genuinely affordable housing poses a threat to the survival of communities in rural England, according to a report published today (28 November) by CPRE, the countryside charity.

‘Unraveling a crisis: the state of rural affordable housing in England’ sets out the causes of the problem, lays bare its impact on real people and explains what the next government can do to fix it.

House prices and wages

Record house prices, stagnating wages, huge waiting lists for social housing and a proliferation of second homes and short-term lets are driving people out of the communities they know and love.

The countryside, where levels of homelessness have leapt 40% in just five years, is being drained of skills, economic activity and vital public services.

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

House prices in the countryside increased at close to twice the rate of those in urban areas in the five years to 2022.

While the average cost of a home jumped 29% and is now £419,000, rural earnings increased by just 19% to a total of £25,600.

Social housing waiting lists

More than 300,000 people are on waiting lists for social rented housing in rural England, an increase of just over 10% since 2018.

At the current rate of construction, it would take 89 years for everyone on a waiting list to be offered a home.

Current planning policies allow for the building of new ‘affordable’ housing costing anything up to 80% of market value. This means that in many rural areas the ‘affordable homes’ being provided are often anything but.

Local authorities have not replaced social housing at the rate properties have been sold under the Right to Buy policy, leading to a chronic shortage of housing for people who need it most.

‘Decades of inaction have led to an affordable housing crisis that is ripping the soul from our rural communities. Solutions do exist and the next government must set and deliver ambitious targets for new, genuinely affordable and social rented rural housing, curbing the boom of second homes and short-term lets.

‘Record house prices and huge waiting lists for social housing are driving people out of rural communities, contributing to soaring levels of often hidden rural homelessness. Urgent change is required to ensure we don’t end up with rural communities that are pricing out the very people needed to keep them vibrant.’

ROGER MORTLOCK
CPRE chief executive 

Affordable housing around England

In Cornwall, where more than 15,000 families are on social housing waiting lists, the number of properties for short-term let (at much higher prices than social rents), grew by 661% in the five years to 2021.

Half of the families on social housing waiting lists in South Lakeland could be accommodated in local properties available exclusively as holiday rentals, while Devon has seen 4,000 homes taken off the private rental market and 11,000 new short-term listings since 2016.

The government has legal powers to protect council housing purchased under the Right to Buy scheme from being sold off at market rates or as second homes.

This research is the first published study to look at the overall coverage of these so-called ‘Section 157’ powers. CPRE found that these powers only apply to half of all rural parishes in England.

They exclude whole counties such as Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, and also large towns.

There are several large towns, particularly places like Cirencester, Frome, Padstow, Sherborne and St Ives in south west England, where there is a particular lack of affordable housing.