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Home> Our Work> Rural housing> Rural Housing Week

Rural Housing Week

Rural Housing Week is an annual campaign that highlights the many social and economic benefits of affordable housing to rural communities.

Rural Housing Week 2024

Rural Housing Week 2024 will take place 1-5 July.

Affordable housing is essential to the prosperity of rural communities. Research shows that building just 10 affordable homes in a rural area generates £1.4m for the economy and supports an average of 26 jobs in the area. However, despite the relatively small scale of these projects, building new affordable homes in rural areas is extremely challenging. The delivery of affordable rural homes is often hampered by complex planning policies, a shortage of investment and stretched resources, leading to limited development in rural areas. These barriers combine to restrict housing supply for rural communities, which threatens their long-term sustainability.

Research shows that the next government could deliver a £51.2bn net profit by building 90,000 affordable homes. Rural Housing Week 2024 will highlight the role of housing providers in rural areas in this, and raise awareness of the many social and economic benefits that a proper rural housing strategy would bring.

Highlights from Rural Housing Week 2023

Thank you to everyone who helped make Rural Housing Week 2023 (3-7 July) a huge success.

This year, housing associations and other stakeholders came together to explore ‘building a better future for rural communities'. Together, we highlighted not only the amazing work housing associations are doing already but also explored some of the challenges facing these communities, such as ‘hidden’ homelessness and how hard it is to develop new homes in rural areas.

New research

On Monday 3 July, we published new research finding that demand for social homes in rural areas is growing at over 10 times the rate of that in towns and cities. Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation wrote that, 'Only 5,953 new homes for social rent were completed across England’s rural communities [between 2019 and 2022], meaning local people are running out of housing options.'

In the media

Inside Housing reported on our new research finding that homes in rural areas grows by over 10 times the rate of towns and cities

Inside Housing also published a comment piece by Angela Gascoigne, Chief Executive of Shal Housing, in which she says 'Rural poverty is characterised by invisibility, partly because it is dispersed rather than concentrated and partly because it is culturally invisible.'

Supporter gallery

Webinars

We held two webinars during Rural Housing Week 2023, both of which were recorded and are available to watch in full.

Homelessness – the ‘hidden’ rural crisis

Speakers from the Centre for Homelessness Impact, Herefordshire Council and the University of Kent discuss the 'hidden' homelessness crisis in rural areas.

Watch now

Planning – opportunities and obstacles for delivering rural housing

Speakers from Hastoe Group, University College London and Homes England discuss why building homes in rural areas is often more challenging.

Watch now

Rural Homelessness Counts

Rural Housing Week 2023 saw the launch of the ‘Rural Homelessness Counts’ coalition, which aims to raise awareness of the growing homelessness problem in rural areas, and work towards sustainable solutions to tackling it.

Find out more about the group and how to join.

#RuralHousingWeek

Just a few of the highlights from #RuralHousingWeek.

NHF out and about

Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, paid a visit to Hastoe Housing Group in Essex to see for herself how NHF members are helping to build a better future for our rural communities.

"At Hatfield Heath, Ulrike Maccariello, Development Director at Hastoe, showed me some fantastic affordable homes, built to Passivhaus standard. We also got to see the community allotments which are flourishing. When visiting Little Hallingbury we met a resident champion who talked proudly about his home and told us about his friendly neighborhood and the strong sense of community. There’s no doubt that building the homes people need, where they need them, contributes massively to the vitality of rural areas."

Who to speak to

Patrick Merton-Jones, External Affairs Manager

020 7067 1041