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 average house price in the North West's small rural villages was up to nearly eight times the average household income last year, according to the latest statistics from the Commission for Rural Communities. Affordability pressures were greatest in the smallest hamlets where average house prices were up to nearly ten times the average income -compared to a ratio of six times the average income in urban areas.
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.
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.
