Rural areas suffer affordable housing shortage
Friday, 5 August 2011 9:08 AM
The Countryside Alliance has today highlighted a shortage of affordable housing in rural areas across England, Wales and Scotland.
The pressure group said its research showed among the councils in England, Wales and Scotland with responsibility for housing, there will be a shortfall of 76 per cent (or 176,360 affordable units) in 2010/11.
The Alliance said that just under a third of rural councils in England would complete the planned number of affordable housing builds by the end of the year.
It also identified how there are significantly fewer first-time buyers in rural areas, accounting for 27 per cent of all buyers compared with 45 per cent in urban areas.
Rural housing remains less affordable than in urban areas, the Alliance said, as average prices in the countryside are more than five times the average annual earnings of those living in the countryside.
Average wages for people working in rural communities are £4,655 lower than the national average.
Alice Barnard, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: "The Countryside Alliance's research highlights that affordable housing provision is a huge challenge in both urban and rural areas.
"But if the rural need for affordable housing is not addressed, and urgently, many of those communities upon which our countryside depends will shrivel and die."
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