Rural Housing Week 2017 is happening between 3-7 July, focusing on what rural housing associations can do to increase the supply of homes in rural communities.
CCB has worked in partnership with some of the Housing Associations in Berkshire over the last 12 years to produce Housing Need Surveys. In 2017 we run a project called Berkshire Rural Housing Partnership funded by Sovereign Housing, Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and West Berkshire Council.
Get the lowdown on all things Rural and Housing related in our helpful news article.
Rural Affordable
Housing
Communities
that are interested in exploring their options of providing affordable homes for
people with a connection to their community have a number options open to them.
Three of these options are rural exception sites, Community Land Trusts and the
Community Right to Build.
In
general, rural affordable housing schemes start with identification of need. A Housing
Needs Survey of the community determines whether there is any actual need
for affordable homes and gauges community support for a housing initiative.
Sometimes a landowner will promote land for a scheme which may prompt action to
start the process. There must be evidence of housing need in the community to
support any planning application.
For
further information on housing needs surveys, including costs and timescales,
please contact Tim Parry at the Community Council for Berkshire: tim.parry@ccberks.org.uk
Rural
Exception Sites
A
Rural Exception Site is where planning permission may be given by a local
authority for affordable housing on land that would not receive permission for
any other purpose, provided there is an identified local need. They can only be
developed in parishes defined as rural. Depending on local policies, the land would
need to abut the village settlement envelope as shown in the local plan for the
district. Affordable homes on a rural exception site are preserved for the
benefit of the community in perpetuity.
There
are safeguards to ensure that the proposed properties remain affordable for
local people through a condition placed by the planning process known as a
“Section 106” agreement. It also ensures that the Right to Buy does not apply.
Shared ownership properties are restricted to a maximum equity of 80%, with the
housing association retaining at least a 20% interest in the house.
The
National Planning Policy Framework now permits an element of ‘cross-subsidy’ on
rural exception sites. This is a limited number of houses to sell on the open
market in order to raise money to develop the affordable homes.
For
further information, please contact Tim Parry at the Community Council for
Berkshire: tim.parry@ccberks.org.uk
Community Land Trusts (CLTs)
CLTs are locally based, not-for-profit organisations that
hold assets such as land and buildings in trust. They capture the value of land
by excluding assets from the speculative market in perpetuity, and use the value
to benefit the community. CLTs are driven by the people who are directly
affected by local decisions: they manage the trust, giving them real access to
local governance.
Community Land Trusts give a high degree of community
control over assets which include housing but are not necessarily limited to
housing. They may also encompass workspace, and community amenities such as
village shops.
Provision of housing or other space on such a scheme is
through the purchase of shares and is income linked, rather than property value
linked. Increases in the value of a property are shared on resale between the
Trust and the homeowner (or renter) according to the allocated shares. Profits
are invested back into the Trust.
While historically not new, CLTs have recently had a
resurgence in England. CLTs have recently been promoted as a means for
providing affordable housing to communities. There are now many examples of CLT
developments, including:
·
Stroud, Gloucestershire
·
High Bickington, North Devon
·
Holy Island
These schemes take a tremendous amount of drive and
determination from a community to develop. However, the end result is
development controlled by your community that meets your precise requirements. There
is a significant amount of advice and funding support available from Government
sources.
They can be very rewarding and provide multiple solutions
for keeping communities sustainable. These schemes may be developed on rural
exception sites, although are not limited to them.
Community Right to Build
The Localism Act 2011 granted new powers to communities,
including the Community Right to Build (CRtB). It is a type of Neighbourhood
Development Order (NDO – a specific type of planning permission granted by a
Parish or Town Council).
This right enables local people to bring forward small
scale, site specific, community-led developments that can consist of any type
of building and should benefit the community. It may therefore have a mix of
homes to sell and affordable homes that help to finance some other community
amenity like a community building, recreation facility or other development
identified as required by the community.
In order to be able to use the right, members of a
community will need to set themselves up as a corporate body with the purpose
of furthering the social, economic and environmental well-being of the local
community (i.e. community interest company (CIC)).
Development proposals will need to meet minimum criteria
and have the agreement of more than 50 per cent of local people that vote
through a community referendum. It will be for communities to determine the
type of development they want to see, including the type and tenure of any
housing, including affordable housing.
Any benefits from any development, such as capital or
rental receipts, will remain within the community trust for the benefit of the
community.
