Affordable Rural Housing

There is an acute shortage of affordable homes in rural areas of Hertfordshire. This has a significant impact on the sustainability of rural communities. With the high cost of house prices in rural villages, many local families and single people are forced to move out of the area to find a property they can afford. Consequently the social character of the villages changes. This breaks up family networks and will often impact on services in rural areas such as transport, schools and shops, which may become less viable.

Having sufficient affordable housing in rural areas is in everyone’s interests.

It is also important, of course, that any new housing developments protect the nature of villages and are only taken forward with proper consultation with local people. An accepted way to do this is to develop small, non-commercial, affordable housing schemes in ‘exception sites’ in villages, where a need for more affordable housing has been established and where the housing can be kept for people with a local connection, in perpetuity.

CDA for Herts can provide support and impartial advice to Parish Councils and rural communities on how they can investigate housing need in their area and develop such schemes, if appropriate, to meet the needs of local people.

Find out more about what is involved click on link to view our Housing leaflet.