Rural Housing Policy Review – RHEs have a voice

Rural Housing Policy Review – RHEs have a voice

CCB’s Rural Housing Enabler (RHE), Arlene Kersley, has recently submitted a response to the Rural Housing Policy Review, representing the position of RHEs across England on changes in policies that have affected the delivery of rural affordable homes over the past 10 years.  

The Rural Housing Policy Review (RHPR) has been set up by Hastoe Housing and is independently Chaired by Lord Richard Best to review how progress is being made and what obstacles remain in delivering rural affordable homes since the publication of a number of key strategic housing Affordable Housing Review and the Matthew Taylor Report, Living in the countryside.  The review will take into account the impact of changes in Housing, Planning Policy and the economic climate, and will be considering evidence from a wide spectrum of sources.

As part of the review, Arlene Kersley, the RHE at the Community Council for Berkshire, surveyed all of the ACRE Network members and known RHEs regarding their views on what has made rural exception sites succeed and what barriers remain in bringing forward affordable housing projects to England’s rural communities.  

The resultant paper highlights the difficulties for RHEs in delivering rural affordable homes in such a difficult economic climate, where funding for development is limited, affordable housing has an ambiguous definition and funding to keep RHEs in post is eroding away. 

The submission to the RHPR Board can be viewed here.

The RHPR is due to publish its findings early in 2015.

CCB is successful in bid to give valuable advice to families on reducing their home energy costs

The Family Energy Education and Advice project

This Big Lottery funded project under the Awards for All scheme provides drop in advice sessions to 26 Children’s Centres in locations across Berkshire. This valuable advice will enable vulnerable families to reduce their fuel costs by switching energy supplier to save on cost, and claim the benefits they are entitled to if they are on a low income, such as the Warm Home Discount, a discount of £140 off their electricity bill. Advice will also be given on where to get help with insulation and boiler repairs, and top tips on reducing energy use at home. Helen Dean from CCB will also give talks to groups of families who receive extra support from the family Support Workers in Children's Centres in Slough, on reducing their home energy costs. We expect that over 220 families will benefit from the project.

Helen Dean, Energy Advice Co-ordinator said: “ The information I am able to give out is of real benefit to families. Last week I was able to give a family advice on contacting their supplier to repay a debt on their electricity bill, and claim for the Warm Home Discount - £140 discount off their bill in the Spring. I was also able to give their family support worker details of a trust fund the family can apply to for a grant to pay off the debt, and they will now receive the support they need to apply.”

Walking for Health in West Berkshire

 

Walking for Health in West Berkshire

West Berkshire has eighteen regular led health walks for people of all abilities, especially those who are inactive or do little physical activity. Our walks are friendly, welcoming and empowering, they are a great opportunity to explore the outdoors, discover new places and meet new people. Our specially trained volunteers provide encouragement, support and make sure no one gets left behind.

How can I get involved?

It's easy to start walking. Find a walk near you using the walks timetable [847kb]. Walks are free and easy, ranging from 30 to 90 minutes so can easily be fitted into everyday life. Some walks stop for coffee afterwards in a nearby cafe, a good opportunity to socialise and relax after the walk.

 

Walking has been described as the "nearest activity to the perfect form of exercise", it benefits both physical and mental health. Regular walking has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma, strokes and some cancers. Walking counts towards the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity people should be doing each week.

 

Walking has also been shown to improve self esteem, relieve symptoms of depression, anxiety, and improve health.

Enborne Housing Need Survey: 20th October to 17th November 2014

Enborne Housing Need Survey

Enborne Parish Council volunteers have now delivered a housing need survey to all residents in Enborne Parish.  The survey is being administered by the Rural Housing Enabler at CCB and the results will inform the parish council whether or not there is any need for affordable homes for local people in the parish.

 

The survey is open until the 17th of November 2014.  If you have a local connection to Enborne and you need a copy of the survey contact Arlene Kersley on 0118 9612000 or by email at arlene.kersley@ccberks.org.uk.

A report of the survey results will be delivered to the Parish Council in December.





  

Community Homes – Models for Development

On the 23rd of September West Berkshire Parish Councils, District Councillors and land owners had the opportunity to learn about the different types of community led developments that are now available. 

CCB organised the event in partnership with West Berkshire Adult and Community Learning, and the Housing Team at West Berkshire Council. Speakers included:
- Councillor Roger Croft, Lead Member for Housing introduced the day
- Arlene Kersley, Rural Housing Enabler at CCB spoke about rural exception sites and the Community Right to Build that allows communities to grant their own planning permission for certain schemes that benefit the community.
- Stuart Roberts from Sovereign Housing spoke about SHAs massive amount of experience developing exception sites and about new legislation that permits a very small number of houses on such a scheme to be developed to sell on the open market in order to finance the affordable homes (cross-subsidy).  This helps to save tax payer money on housing development subsidies.
- Hannah Fleetwood from the National Community Land Trusts spoke about the snowballing number of CLTs springing up across the country
- Edward Crookes from Englefield Estates gave a land owners perspective on developing to meet community objectives
- and Calum Taylor from NACSBA spoke about the popularity of self –build and custom build developments across the UK.

Participants found the day very informative and at least one group that attended will be exploring how they might make use of some of the possible solutions to develop homes in their own community.

Woolhampton Homes – ever closer to completion

At last the builders are on site at Sunhill developing 8 homes for people with a local connection to Woolhampton.  The development is nearing completion with an anticipated handover date sometime in February 2015. 

On the 30th of October Arlene Kersley from CCB, and Tony Renouf the Chairman of Woolhampton Parish Council were invited to have a tour of the site along with Maureen Sheridan and Jenny Broad from West Berkshire Council. The 8 houses are progressing well. They will each have ground source heat pumps and are very spacious homes with lovely views across the Kennet Valley.

Anyone that has a need for an affordable rented home and that has a local connection to Woolhampton. (i.e. they currently live in unsuitable circumstances in Woolhampton, they have parents or children in Woolhampton, or they work in Woolhampton) should ensure that you are registered on the West Berkshire HomeChoice system to ensure that you can apply for one of these homes. You can register online at: www.homechoicewb.org.uk/

If you do not have a computer you can do this at any local library or register directly at the West Berkshire District Council Market Street Office in Newbury.  Alternatively you can ring the Housing Register Team on: 01635 519530. Aster Homes is responsible for the development.  They have worked closely with West Berkshire District Council, Woolhampton Parish Council and the CCB Rural Housing Enabler to make this scheme possible.

If your community would like to find out how it might benefit from a similar development for local people please contact Arlene Kersley, the Rural Housing Enabler for Berkshire on 0118 9612000 or by email at arlene.kersley@ccberks.org.uk

Autumn Parish Planning News: Information on how Boxford & Ashampstead parishes have been busy in West Berkshire

Parish Planning News. Autumn 2014.

by Tessa Hall, Parish Planning Community Development Worker, CCB Telephone: 07966236408 or email:  tessa.hall@ccberks.org.uk

2014 has seen a renovation at Ashampstead Village Hall whilst Boxford has a totally new hall.  Both of these projects came about through the hard work of the communities Parish Planning groups. I would like to thank and congratulate Ashampstead and Boxford planning groups for all their hard work, read more below about how both of these projects came about.
 

Ashampstead

Ashampstead Recreational Trust (ART) formed a village hall business group and raised £26,000 to refurbish their Jubilee hall which was once the village school. It was stated in Ashampstead’s Parish Plan from 2008 that ‘although the hall plays an active part in the life of the village, it has the potential to play a far more pivotal role.  However in order to achieve this potential it needs modernizing, constant maintenance and general tender loving care to bring it fully into the 21st century making it something we can be proud of and a worthy feature within the community.  Only then can we build a broader spectrum of events and activities to enhance the lives of the people who use this facility’.

This has now been achieved. The funding was a combination of grants from the Greenham Common Trust Find Me a Grant website and advice from organisations including CCB.
In addition, local fundraising brought in over £1,000 from an Elvis night, £1,400 from a Food Fair and £1,500 (and counting!) from sales of a village cookbook.

The funds raised enabled the committee to refurbish the main hall where the improvements included new lighting, installation of a PA system and repainting.

Photo of the smaller committee room, suitable for business and other meetings.

A smaller committee room, which could be used for business meetings, has a new floor and lighting, insulation, wood panelling, carpeting, new blinds and curtains as well as new chairs. The toilets have been improved and outside there is emergency lighting and new guttering. The work was completed in April 2014.

As well as use by village organisations, the committee is looking for hirers from outside the village. One room and the kitchen can be hired for £10 hour. Further details are available at www.ashampstead.com/Pages/ashampstead-village-hall.html as well as on Facebook (search for Ashampstead Village Hall) and Twitter (@AshampsteadVH).

The committee and volunteers are to be congratulated for the hard work which has gone into transforming the hall which is an excellent example of the village working together

Boxford

The opening ceremony of Boxford’s new village Hall was held on 6th September 2014. The project to build a new Village Hall started out as an action in the Parish Plan which was published in 2007.

The ceremony was started by Glenn Evans, the chairman of the Village Hall Council of Management and Gay Smith, Village Hall committee member, who helped with the cutting of the ribbon and presented a celebratory cake. The hall was opened by award winning writer Sebastian Faulks, whose family used to live in Boxford.

Mike Appleton, Parish Councillor for Boxford and Chairman of the Parish Plan was the project lead.  The project took 5 years to complete. He told me that 93% of the total cost for the planning and building of the new hall was covered by the sale of the old village hall site. 6% of the remaining funding came from Greenham Common Trust and the last 1% from the Parish Council and village hall funds.

The new hall is built to meet modern eco standards; it is fully insulated and has a ground source heat pump operating from a dual well system which provides all the heating and hot water. One of the wells also provides the potable water. It has photovoltaic panels on the roof which should cover the cost of all electricity required. The building is lit mainly by LED lighting which reduces electricity consumption. There is also a "cloud" sound absorption system which helps the acoustics of the building, softens noise and improves voice communication, so often a problem in public buildings.

The building has an internal area of 250m2 and this provides for two halls, kitchen, storage and sports changing facilities and toilets. The old hall had one hall which was used by the local pre-school. One of the main design features for the new hall is that it has two halls.  This enables the pre-school and other community activities to run in parallel, something the old hall could not do. The two halls are divided by a state of the art acoustic screen which means it is also possible to combine the two halls into one large hall if required.
Local companies were used for the planning and building of the hall and the work was completed both within the budget and building programme.

Hire charges: In the week the main hall can be hired by residents for £11 an hour and for £14 an hour by non residents. At weekends it’s £14 for residents and £18 non-residents. Please email: boxford.village.hall@gmail.com or phone: 01488 658366 for the full list of prices.

Thatcham's Vision: Have your say on the new Parish Plan

Following on from the recent community survey in Thatcham, the Vision has now fully investigated the issues identified by residents and drawn up an action plan for the next five years. 
Thatcham Vision’s community survey was carried out to feed resident’s opinions into a major refresh of the Parish Plan for the town. The aim was to identify the issues that matter most to the local community. The next stage was to invite members of the community to take part in a number of focus groups to consider the data and discuss issues raised in the survey. The output from these groups was then transformed into a list of actions formulated to improve the social and economic well-being of the town. 

Following on from the community survey, the Vision has now fully investigated the issues identified and drawn up an action plan for the next five years. 

The parish planners would now like your thoughts on the outcome of this work. Will the plan include a project to improve the issues you face? This is your chance to have your say on the final draft before it is sent to the Town and District Councils for adoption.
So if you are a resident of Thatcham please have a look at the plan and comment. To view it click here:  www.thatchamvision.net/yourviewscount

By Mireille Willan, Project Manager, Thatcham Vision. T: 01635 863592

 

Hermitage celebrate beginnings of New Village hall

On 2 October a number of people were invited by Claude Fenton (Construction) Ltd to view the progress being made on the new village hall in Hermitage. Building began in the summer and the foundations are now complete. All being well, the hall will be completed in Spring 2015 and will provide a modern, well equipped and energy efficient meeting place for the villagers, replacing the existing hall which is now not suitable for the village's requirements.

John Lawler, a volunteer from Hermitage who is overseeing the project, is delighted with the way work is progressing and is looking forward to the time when the new hall will be available for everyone to use. 

Wendy Dacey, Community Buildings Advisor for CCB went along to see how the project was progressing and said: "It is great to witness how the village hall is now being built. CCB has been involved with this project for many years, it is very satisfying to see it starting to take shape and is exciting for the community of Hermitage."

Rural economy under the spotlight at ACRE conference.

Rural economy under the spotlight at ACRE conference.

Investment in rural communities will be under the spotlight when leading rural network ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) stages its conference on Thursday 13th November. ACRE, the national voice for England’s network of 38 rural community councils, will bring together community stakeholders, rural businesses, politicians and funders at ‘Why Rural Matters - The Case for Investment’.

Tim Parry, CEO of ACRE Network member the Community Council for Berkshire, said "The focus of the event will be the increasing contribution that rural is making to the UK economy - and finding the key to unlocking future investment in our communities. It promises to be a great opportunity for people who work and live in rural areas to share intelligence, inspiration and insight in the run-up to the 2015 election."

The keynote speech will be given by Professor Mark Shucksmith OBE, Director of the Newcastle Institute of Social Renewal, who joined the board of ACRE earlier this year. Dawn Austwick OBE, chief executive of the Big Lottery Fund and Ron Crank, chief executive of the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership, will speak on the future of funding for rural communities.

The political view will be put forward by Lord De Mauley TD, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Defra; Huw Irranca-Davies MP, Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and Julie Girling MEP, Conservative MEP for South West England & Gibraltar.

The conference will also hear from businesses who have successfully met the challenges of setting up in a rural area, including Oli Christie of Neon Play, Debra Drew of Fabric Architecture and Simon Baxter of Dijon Designs.

Speakers from the ACRE Network will be Rob Crowder, chief executive of Rural Community Action Nottinghamshire, and Jon Boswell, chief executive of Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity, who will discuss the role of communities in driving social enterprise and innovation in rural areas.

ACRE chief executive Janice Banks said: “We are delighted to have such a great line-up of speakers who will get to the heart of the opportunities and challenges for rural communities, enterprises and businesses. The event is an ideal opportunity to discuss what lies ahead for rural and the need for investment from Government, funders and entrepreneurs to keep our communities thriving.”

The conference takes place at the Holiday Inn, Regents Park, London. For more details and to book your place, visit www.acre.org.uk.