News in depth

Rural affordability crisis ignored

24 March 2007

In its report ‘Mapping Rural Needs in Britain and Ireland’, it claimed many of the problems affecting the countryside were not being tackled, including the inability of indigenous rural people to purchase property where they live.

With many people buying second homes in the country and commuting into urban areas, property prices have been pushed out of reach of the local population, whose salary cannot stretch to afford a mortgage.

Get the daily news delivered to your inbox

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: “Unless we act now, we will create a rural theme park, where only the very wealthy can live, with small pockets of communities living in real hardship. There’s an urgent need to increase affordable housing in rural towns as many people who play an important role in rural communities cannot afford to live in them.”

According to the report, North Cornwall had the least affordable housing, with people requiring 14 times the local average wage to be able to buy.

The problem was being exacerbated by a lack of building in rural areas, with only 2,371 affordable homes built last year out of a target of 22,000.

Find the latest industry jobs

Neil Johnson, head of PR and policy at the Building Societies Association, said: “Rural poverty is a hidden problem. Rural incomes are falling far behind what is needed to afford property. If it is to be overcome, we need to admit building in green areas is needed. However, this has to be reconciled with not ruining the landscape.”