The new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is out for consultation and the new government has introduced its intention to make other changes to housing delivery policy.

Since DEFRA put funding in place for a new national Rural Housing Service, we have made good progress working with local communities to evaluate local housing need and support the identification of sites that could meet this need.

Whilst Labour’s plans are focused on delivering large numbers of homes through  mandatory local housing targets and the creation of new settlements,  the NPPF consultation does ask the specific question What measures should we consider to better support and increase rural affordable housing?  Community First Oxfordshire will respond to this. We believe it is vital that communities directly benefit from housing development. Affordable rural housing projects may be small in scale but yield major benefits, contributing significantly to community investment and economic prosperity.  Key to being able to deliver this is strong and supportive policy for Rural Exception Sites and access to the grant funding necessary to deliver 100% affordable homes.

On that point one positive is the announced intention for local authorities to retain 100% of receipts from people exercising their Right to Buy their social home. These can be used alongside money raised through developer affordable housing contributions (S06 obligations) that are paid to the local authority as a cash sum to be reinvested into new local housing.  This could be a useful source of funding for these rural schemes

As well as keeping abreast of policy changes Community First Oxfordshire will continue to lobby for our local rural community needs.