Rural Housing Enablers Unlock 2,000 Affordable Homes Pipeline

Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE), in partnership with 34 ACRE Network members working at local level, delivers the UK government-funded programme in which Rural Housing Enablers (RHEs) work with rural communities to help meet local housing need.

CAN are proud to be a part of this network and our Rural Housing Enabler, Ollie has a vital role to play in helping raise awareness among communities, parish councils and other local bodies about Rural Exception Sites which, while key to unlocking rural affordable housing, are underused and commonly misunderstood. RHEs also help to bring communities together to identify the extent of local need and help to ensure they can work together to tackle the affordable rural housing crisis in this country. You can contact Ollie here.

According to the Rural Services Network, people living in rural areas often find it more difficult to secure affordable housing, with house prices rising in rural areas by 29% in the last five years, compared with a 21% increase in urban areas.

To add to this, the lower-quartile income to house-price ratio is 8.8 in rural areas, compared to 7.6 in urban areas, indicating rural housing is notably less affordable. As a result, rural homelessness has grown by 40% since 2018-19, creating a rural housing crisis.

In response to this situation, a new independent evaluation report shows that RHEs have built up a pipeline of 227 prospective rural housing schemes, equating to more than 2,100 potential affordable new homes, over the last two years.

The essential work they have done to build relationships within communities has also tripled the value of every pound invested in terms of social value. You can read the full article here.