Villages excluded from government initiatives to boost affordable housing levels are set to benefit from a change in the way rural settlements are defined.
Housing Corporation targets – such as the construction of 3500 homes in rural areas in the next two years – currently apply only to settlements with a population of 3000 or less. And policies such as the rural exception sites policy, which allows homes to be built in villages, and the power to place limitations on the right to buy, apply only to these settlements.

However, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has commissioned research that will come up with a new, more flexible set of definitions. The research, led by Birkbeck College at the University of London, will be published in the next few months.

Rural affairs minister Alun Michael said: "I'm very hopeful that the sort of work we are now developing is going to give the evidence base for a much more sophisticated policy that meets real need in rural communities."

Source

Housing Today