• Peter Richardson

Welcoming the Government's Policy Paper published on 2nd July

The government's announcement about the plan to boost affordable housing is a very welcome step forward for all the reasons that we will endeavour to highlight this week ( Rural Housing week), GRCC and its partners have been raising awareness with government of the issues regarding rural Affordable Housing for some time and we are pleased to hear this news. The linkages between affordable housing and strong resilient communities wherever they are based are widely reported. GRCC’s Affordable and Community Led Housing Advisers have been working hard to enable more social & affordable rent houses to be available in our communities for over 25 years.

Here is the statement that is in the government's plan for social and affordable housing: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/delivering-a-decade-of-renewal-for-social-and-affordable-housing/delivering-a-decade-of-renewal-for-social-and-affordable-housing:

One of the highlights appears to be the following section and it is good to see the inclusion of rural affordable housing in this:

“We recognise that some types of social and affordable homes that are much needed can often cost more to deliver – such as some homes built by local councils, supported housing, community-led and rural homes. The new programme is designed to be flexible to support the greater diversity of supply needed, and we are asking providers to come forward with ambitious bids that reflect this diversity. This approach replaces the previous approach of setting numerical targets for particular types of homes (e.g. for rural and supported housing delivery). 

This allows those of us who are charged with enabling Affordable Rural Housing, the opportunity to discuss options and opportunities with our Affordable Housing delivery partners and Homes England. 

GRCC will continue to lobby l central government and Homes England and ask the pertinent questions but we see this as a real step forward . 

With Devolution and Local Government reorganisation on the horizon there is also a question of how the AHP will be split between Homes England and Mayoral or Combined Authorities and the levels of funding between the regions. We will share with you an update on this when we can

But, this announcement has to be a good day for rural affordable housing and we at GRCC welcome it.