Share this page
Print this page:
Add this page to:
More funding needed for rural housing, says ERHA
09/03/10
Edited by Tom Bardsley. The government must increase its funding for affordable rural housing if the countryside is to hang on to the young households essential to the building of communities, a housing association has warned.
Martin Collett, operations director at the English Rural Housing Association, said that these families are the group most affected by high house prices and a lack of residential property supply in the country.
His comments come after the chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities, Dr Stuart Burgess, warned that there are "deep concerns" in England's rural communities about the loss of young families because of a lack of housing, jobs and transport infrastructure.
"Without young people to provide a workforce, rural economies are unable to fulfil their full potential and rural communities can go into a decline," he said.
Mr. Collett argued that providing more funding to help builders deliver affordable rural homes will be "one of the main answers" to the problem of young households migrating to the cities.
He also called for communities and parish councils to be given more powers to push housing projects forward.
