Rural affordable housing: why investment and delivery matter

With the launch of the Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP), the government rightly recognised the scale of the housing crisis with a £39bn investment in delivering the homes that the country desperately needs. Since the programme opened in March, our members have submitted ambitious bids to secure funding to support delivery in their area – with rural housing association’s being no exception. Among the many positives in the SAHP, one perhaps less-noticed element is the explicit funding support for social and affordable housing delivered in settlements with a population of fewer than 3,000 people.

In his ministerial foreword to the SAHP, Matthew Pennycook said: “Affordable housing is often more expensive to deliver in rural areas due to development typically being small in scale and in more remote locations”. This is welcome recognition from the government of a challenge that housing associations operating in rural areas are all too familiar with and given rural households on local authority waiting lists grew by 20% from 2021 to 2025, one that needs to be tackled head on to support the long-term sustainability of many rural communities.

One of the highlights of my role as chair of the National Housing Federation (NHF) is having the opportunity to visit our members across the country to learn about their vital work, and the many diverse types of housing and essential support services they provide to residents. I was delighted to travel up to Northallerton in late May to meet Broadacres’ new Chief Executive Claire Townson and her team to see some of their work in the area.

The Broadacres sites I visited were a shining example of the work our members are doing to deliver new homes and improve the quality of existing homes> This included a brownfield site with 88 new homes for social rent and shared ownership nearing completion (with many families already living in their new homes), and 17 homes from the 1950’s in Leeming Bar brought up to EPC A through a variety of measures, including new roofs with integrated solar PV. Residents were even able to stay in their homes as work went ahead. I also spent some time talking to residents and staff at Rivendale Extra Care, a superb modern scheme with excellent facilities crucial to meeting local demand for housing and support for older people.

The majority of Broadacres’ homes are located in North Yorkshire, one of the most rural areas of the country. Housing across the region is unaffordable for many local people, which is particularly acute in rural areas where average incomes are generally lower and house prices higher. Nevertheless, the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority was highlighted in the Rural Housing Network report on the opportunities and risks of devolution for rural affordable housing as a region taking the right steps to rural delivery ‘bolstered by a mayor who is highly supportive of rural affordable housing as a strategic priority’. Through their work leading on the local housing partnership’s ‘right homes in the right place’ workstream, Broadacres is at the forefront of working with the combined authority to ensure the housing growth strategy delivers for the whole region, including those in rural areas.

My visit came ahead of this year’s Rural Housing Week (6-10 July), our annual campaign to highlight the vital role affordable housing plays in supporting and sustaining communities in rural areas across England. Among other highlights will be a new rural housing devolution toolkit – designed to help rural housing stakeholders ensure devolution addresses the need for housing in rural areas, following the example of areas like North Yorkshire.