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Press Release

AFFORDABLE RURAL HOUSING GIVEN A WELCOME BOOST

29 February 2008

Countryside campaigners, CPRE, today welcomed the announcement by Government of a target for 10,300 new affordable homes to be provided in rural communities of less than 3,000 people over the next three years.

CPRE’s Policy Director, Neil Sinden, said:

'Along with others, we have been calling for a boost in the provision of rural affordable homes through increased public funding. There is a desperate need for subsidised housing in rural towns and villages for local people who are unable to meet their needs through the market.

This target is an important step in the right direction. But for it to be meaningful, it must be backed by adequate resources and the effective use of the planning system to deliver the homes that are needed in the right places.

Ensuring that new affordable homes remain so will be greatly helped by recent moves by the Government to enable restrictions on the sale of new shared ownership homes in rural areas.

While CPRE welcomes these advances, there is still some way to go to meet the Affordable Rural Housing Commission’s call for 11,000 affordable homes to be built each year in rural settlements with populations under 10,000.'

Neil Sinden concluded:

'We urge the Government to look again at the scale of the affordable housing needs of those living in the larger rural settlements, and to set a target along the lines suggested by the Commission at the earliest opportunity.'



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