COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT News Release (061) issued by The Government News Network
on 25 March 2009
The Government
today set out its proposals for helping rural communities to
thrive in the 21st Century by providing more affordable housing
and greater freedom to develop strong local economies.
Responding to Matthew Taylor MP's 2008 Review into issues
facing rural communities, Housing Minister Margaret Beckett and
Rural Affairs Minister Huw Irranca-Davies set out their proposals
to help create strong and diverse rural communities which are able
to tackle their own unique challenges at a local level.
The Review has identified both the specific challenges facing
different rural areas and the similar issues facing both rural and
urban economies. The Government will therefore give Local
Authorities more flexibility to tackle the issues their
communities face and the new measures announced today will help:
* Small villages to provide the homes they need for local
families priced out of the housing market by encouraging local
authorities and developers to identify "exception" sites
that can provide more affordable homes;
* Rural businesses to get planning permission for sites that are
suitable given their rural setting through a refreshed approach to
planning policy that recognises their distinct needs.
* Medium-sized rural towns to develop sustainable new
neighbourhoods rather than building soulless housing estates on
the edge of town, including through a new £1m competition to
encourage best practice;
To help underline the important role rural areas can play in
delivering economic prosperity, a new single policy statement will
be published combining existing planning guidance aimed at
delivering sustainable economic development in urban and rural
areas and town centres. This new single Planning Policy Statement
will be published for consultation soon.
Housing Minister Margaret Beckett said:
"We simply must take action to overcome the unsustainable
pressures facing the future of rural communities. All too often
the high cost of homes and low wages are pricing young families
out of their communities, with the average rural home costing up
to ten times the average salary in some rural areas.
"These subtle but important changes are the key to getting
the balance right between protection and development in the
countryside. This will give local communities the flexibility they
need to take the right decisions on the individual issues they face."
Rural Affairs Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said:
"Good, affordable housing is critical to rural communities
and local economies - rural businesses struggle to find staff when
so many people are forced to leave to find better housing and
opportunities elsewhere.
"The Government is committed to rural communities, and as
the rural heart of government Defra will do everything it can,
working closely with the Department for Communities and Local
Government and others, to continue to support measures that have a
positive impact on rural housing and businesses."
Matthew Taylor MP said:
"This is an important day for the countryside. No change is
no option - the alternative to sustaining and rejuvenating rural
communities is to fossilise them, in time forcing out the families
and working people without whom farms can't be tended, shops
and services kept running, village schools kept open. My report,
'Living Working Countryside', was about supporting rural
communities across England. Without the action promised by the
Government today in response to my report, all too often our
countryside would face local people priced out, local services
closing, and ever fewer and worse paid jobs."
The latest statistics from the Commission for Rural Communities
show that in rural areas the average house price last year was
more than seven times the average household income, compared to a
ratio of 6.3 times the average income in urban areas. These
affordability pressures are greatest in the smallest hamlets,
where the average price house is almost ten times the average income.
While the Government has accepted almost all of the 48
recommendations of the Taylor Review, we have decided against the
proposal of a trial limiting second homes in National Parks. The
Review itself acknowledged the real issues of practicality such a
policy may face, and the Government believes there are more
innovative ways of providing the affordable homes that rural
communities need without interfering with the legitimate rights of
second home owners.
Notes to Editors
1. A copy of the full Government Response to the Mathew
Taylor's Report is available on the Communities and Local
Government website in the 'Planning' Section: http://www.communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/planning.
2. In response to the Review's recommendations, the
Government will:
* Bring together a number of existing planning policy statements
covering economic development topics into a single new PPS on
planning for prosperity. In its final form, this PPS will replace
Planning Policy Guidance Note 4: Industrial, commercial
development and small firms (PPG4, 1992), Planning Policy Guidance
Note 5: Simplified Planning Zones (PPG5, 1992), Planning Policy
Statement 6: Planning for town centres (PPS6, 2005), Planning
Policy Statement 7: Sustainable development in rural areas (PPS7)
(as far as it relates to economic development) and paragraphs 53,
54 and Annex D of Planning Policy Guidance Note 13: Transport.
This will be published for consultation shortly.
* Publish proposals for taking forward Community Land Trusts next
month and details to create protected areas where shared ownership
homes need to be retained for future purchasers.
* Reinforce the importance of masterplanning by local authorities
when planning the sustainable expansion of small or medium-sized
settlements, including a competition to encourage best practice.
£1m will be available for this over the next two years, with more
details to be announced shortly.
* Create up a practitioners' Working Group to bring the
industry together and explore ways to incentivise landowners to
provide land for rural housing 'exception' sites - those
locations where local planning authorities can grant permission
for small scale affordable housing development as an
'exception' to their normal policies of countryside
protection because of the level of local need.
3. The Prime Minister asked Matthew Taylor, MP for Truro and St
Austell, to conduct a review on how land use and planning can
better support rural business and deliver affordable housing. He
consulted very widely, visited all parts of England and his Report
('Living Working Countryside') was published in July
2008 and is available on the Communities and Local Government
website in the 'Planning' Section: http://www.communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/planning.
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