Responding to today’s report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation highlighting the acute housing problems facing growing numbers of families in rural areas, Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman of the Home Builders Federation, says:
“The report shows that house building has actually been falling in rural areas – down 4 per cent from 2003-5 – at a time when demand is increasing rapidly. It brings into sharp focus the inadequacies of the current planning system which is severely constraining the supply of developable land, particularly in rural areas.
“While the rate of house building is indeed increasing in urban areas, the requirements of rural areas are not being met. As the Foundation recognises, we need to find ways of bringing more land forward for development to meet rural areas’ needs. Only by improving supply for these areas can we facilitate the full range of housing solutions their communities need.
“We can see that the planning system is increasingly denying people in rural areas the chance to own their own home, which risks adding to social and economic problems as well as encouraging longer-distance commuting.”
“We urgently need a planning system that is efficient, predictable and, above all, responsive to market demand. Only then can house builders properly work to address Britain’s housing crisis and provide people with the right homes, of the right type in the right places”
Notes for Editors
The Home Builders Federation (HBF) is the principal trade federation for private sector home builders and voice of the home building industry in England and Wales. The HBF’s 300 member firms account for over 80% of all new homes built in England and Wales in any one year, and include companies of all sizes, ranging from multi-national, household names through regionally based businesses to small local companies: www.hbf.co.uk
More families priced out of rural areas, says JRF report, 26 April 2006:
Average density of new homes development has increased nationally to 40dph (dwellings per hectare), up from 25dph in 1997. Meanwhile, 72% of new housing is now on brownfield land - an all-time record. ODPM figures, August 2005
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