Renting average 2-bed property costs
more than 50% of local median income
in 15 rural local authorities
Sevenoaks, Bath and northeast
Somerset, Tandridge, Chichester and Lewes UK’s least affordable
rural areas
CPRE, the countryside charity, calls
for urgent action to tackle rural housing affordability
crisis
People on middle incomes have been squeezed out of renting in
rural towns and villages in southern England, reveals new
analysis from CPRE, the countryside charity.
In 15 rural local authorities across
the region, the analysis shows that someone earning the local median income would currently
see more than half their take home pay go on rent for the average
two-bedroom property. This is much higher than the widely
accepted affordability threshold of 30%, making it very difficult
for these households to maintain a decent standard of
living.
Sevenoaks is the worst local authority
when it comes to unaffordable rents, followed by Bath and
northeast Somerset, Tandridge, Chichester and Lewes.
Record high rents and house prices,
stagnating wages, huge waiting lists for social housing and a
proliferation of second homes and short-term lets are draining
the countryside of skills, economic activity and vital public
services.
CPRE is calling on the government to
fix the rural housing affordability crisis that is driving people
across the region and the country as a whole from the communities
they know and love.
There is an extreme disparity between
rural rents, which are higher than those in other parts of the
country, and rural wages, which are much lower.
The analysis by CPRE uses the best
available ONS data, which accounts only for the incomes of people
in employment. It does not include those of self-employed people
or people out of work, both of whom are poorer on average. So
while the analysis makes alarming reading, the true picture of
affordability is likely to be even worse. A secure and healthy
home is a foundation for a decent life and one that many people
in rural communities are being denied.
Last year, rents in rural England
increased by 27%, compared to the national average of 17%; in the
five years to 2022, house prices in the countryside increased at
close to twice the rate of those in urban
areas.
There is no one measure that will fix
the rural housing affordability crisis. Urgent action is required
across a wide range of issues. We are calling on the government
to:
- Redefine
the term ‘affordable housing’ in housing and planning policy so
that the cost of these homes is directly linked to what people on
average local incomes can afford, rather than to market
prices.
-
Increase the minimum amount of
genuinely affordable housing required by national planning
policy and implement ambitious targets for the construction of
social rented homes.
-
Support local communities to deliver
small-scale developments of genuinely affordable housing and
make it easier for councils to purchase land at a reasonable
price, enabling the construction of social housing and vital
infrastructure.
-
Introduce a register of second homes
and short-term lets, with new powers for local authorities to
levy additional council tax on second
homes.
-
Extend restrictions on the resale of
‘affordable housing’ to all parishes with fewer than 3,000
inhabitants to ensure properties continue to be used by local
workers, not as second homes or holiday lets.
CPRE housing campaigner Brad Taylor
said: “It’s alarming that
people on middle incomes – teachers, nurses and emergency
services workers – can no longer afford to live in many parts of
rural England. What will people in these communities do without
the essential workers they rely on every day? The government has
got to get a grip on the rural housing affordability crisis and
urgently introduce the changes to legislation we know will make a
real difference.”
