Bridging the rural divide: Confronting England's hidden housing crisis

Under blue skies and rolling green pastures lies a quintessential vision of rural England. But beneath this picturesque countryside simmers a quiet crisis, writes English Rural CEO Martin Collett.

Imagine a leafy country lane, where cottages evoke a bygone era. If it weren’t for the cars parked on the roadside, you could almost be in a period drama. But as we explore further, uneasy truths emerge from behind the Farrow-and-Ball painted exteriors. 

There is sympathetic talk of the young teacher who drives over fifty miles daily because they can’t afford the high rents in the village. The long commute consumes time and money better invested in lesson planning and mentoring students after class. 

There is concern for the elderly couple who don’t have the cash to maintain their home and have recently returned from short stays in hospital due to declining health and a fall at home. The rumour is they’ve resorted to living downstairs and muddle through with a brief daily visit from a carer (aside from during spouts of bad weather when they can’t reach the village by car from the nearby town). 

Their children can only visit every other weekend now to stock up the fridge and medicine cabinet, having been driven away by the lack of employment opportunities and inability to buy a home close-by. 

And there’s the lesser-known issue with the young man we chance upon, who has been working casually for several local businesses, but since his parents moved away has been sleeping on a friend's sofa; or on warmer nights, a mattress in his work van as there is nothing he can afford on the low wages he receives. 

Stories like these were once rare exceptions, but now abound throughout the countryside. Beyond the metropolitan spotlight, rural England is facing a critical shortage of housing, particularly affordable.

The most vulnerable members of the community feel the harshest impacts, but this crisis threatens the broader fabric of rural life. Without new affordable homes, the ebb-and-flow of essential everyday life of the English countryside is at risk. 

Zooming out, the origins of this crisis can be traced back decades. Right to Buy schemes in the 1980s and 90s drained away much of the stock of affordable council housing in rural areas. Replacement is noted at just one home for every eight that has been sold.

Between 2019 and 2022, just 5,953 new homes for social rent were built across rural England, falling far short of the need of the 200,000+ households languishing on rural local authority housing waiting lists. 

Beyond the metropolitan spotlight, rural England is facing a critical shortage of housing, particularly affordable

At the same time, restrictive planning laws make it difficult to construct new developments, especially in smaller villages red-lined by planners as ‘unsustainable’. 

The housing market has only grown more prohibitive and competitive since, as the idyllic allure of rural life continues driving intense demand while the rise of short-term holiday rentals further limits supply. In 2022, the average lower quartile house price in rural areas was 8.8 times earnings, higher than the 7.6 urban ratio, showing that buying a home is less affordable for rural lower earners. 

Without intervention, another decade of inaction on rural housing could allow this crisis to spiral to the point of no return.

Unlocking potential

But solutions do exist, often hiding in plain sight. Take ‘Rural Exception Sites’ (RES) – an underutilised policy from the 1990s that, when activated to its full potential, can reignite rural community life. 

These sites were conceived to enable the development of genuinely affordable housing on rural land that lacks normal planning permission. The policy enables land to be secured at modest values and locks in homes as affordable in perpetuity, and in a way that benefits local people and communities most. While small in scale individually, their cumulative impact nationally could be transformative. 

The numbers speak for themselves. Recent research shows that just 10 new affordable rural homes can deliver £1.4m in local economic impact, support 26 local jobs, and provide £250,000 in net return for the national Treasury. 

Crucially, these homes offer stability and opportunity for essential rural workers like teachers, elderly residents, people with deep local roots, who form the lifeblood of the countryside. New homes boost local services like pubs, shops, and schools. They provide a workforce for evolving rural economies to rely on, helping food security, green energy production, and nature recovery. 

If used properly, Rural Exception Sites could substantially mitigate the rural housing crisis. There are around 8,000 villages in England; imagine if each one built just 10 homes on a small corner of a field. 

Yet despite obvious and growing housing needs, only around 15 per cent of rural councils deliver affordable housing projects on these sites each year. Unlocking their full potential requires stronger leadership, local emphasis, and a focus from those of us working in the affordable housing sector. 

The payoffs would manifest locally across rural communities.

Imagine, the young teacher finally secures an affordable home near the village school, allowing her to fully invest time mentoring students after class rather than commuting for hours. The elderly couple move into a flat where they are safe and warm, ageing gracefully amongst familiar faces rather than in isolation. And the displaced young man discovers a new permanent home to plant roots rather than transiently moving between temporary shelters. 

With cooperation and compromise, this hopeful vision can transition from dream to reality. Evidence has shown the essential role played by Rural Housing Enablers (RHEs) who convene local partnerships and guide them through the process. 

The good news is that the dwindling number of RHEs has had a boost, with DEFRA allocating time-limited funding of £2.5m over the next 18 months to establish a national network. A short but important window of opportunity to secure both some impactful delivery and longer-term security for a network of specialists who, with the right support, will be able to scale up affordable rural housing delivery in every corner of rural England. 

The countryside stands at a crossroads, as the social fabric of community frays under the strain of prohibitive housing costs and displaced lives. The next chapter of this story has yet to be written.

• Image credit: Martin Collett/English Rural