Sustainable communities and rural affordable housing
The Rural Affordable Housing Project has highlighted progressive strategic and policy thinking with regard to sustainability criteria. The project has also identified elected members and planning officers that view some villages as ‘unsustainable’.
There is a need for evidenced based policy to mitigate against the latter, and so adhere to the principles as set out in Matthew Taylor report: Living, Working Countryside, that planning decisions should be made based on a recognition of ‘how our rural communities can be rather than writing them off as unsustainable’ (Para 22).
A project, led by Rural Innovation, has been commissioned by the Rural Affordable Housing Project, which will develop a tool to measure the contribution of affordable housing on the sustainability of rural communities.
The objective is to provide a tool to help inform evidence based policy and assist with the assessment of planning applications, with a view to provide planning and strategic housing officers with a firm basis to make a case for, and implement, planning policies/ proposals to help maintain their rural communities as sustainable into the future.
The model will also allow local authorities to gain leverage over issues surrounding local opposition, due to evidenced correlation between affordable housing and availability of key services such as primary schools, pubs, community hubs and public transport in the parish and/or in neighbouring and surrounding areas - as well as communities becoming more informed and empowered to move forward affordable housing proposals if there is the identified need.
