A countryside body is blaming the government’s failure to provide affordable housing and the rise in short lets for a homelessness surge in rural communities.
A report from the Commission for the Protection of Rural England claims that the countryside crisis is being worsened by high house prices, stagnating wages and an increasing number of second homes and short term lets.
And it says the countryside, where levels of homelessness have leapt 40 per cent in five years, is being drained of skills, economic activity and vital public services.
The charity claims: “There is an extreme disparity between rural house prices, which are higher than those in other parts of the country, and rural wages, which are much lower. House prices in the countryside increased at close to twice the rate of those in urban areas in the five years to 2022. While the average cost of a home jumped 29 per cent and is now £419,000, rural earnings increased by just 19 per cent to a total of £25,600.”
It says over 300,000 people are on waiting lists for social rented housing in rural England, an increase of over 10 per cent since 2018, and at the current rate of construction, it would take 89 years to offer a home to everyone on the waiting list.
The report continues: “Current planning policies allow for the building of new ‘affordable’ housing costing anything up to 80 per cent of market value. This means that in many rural areas the ‘affordable homes’ being provided are often anything but. Local authorities have not replaced social housing at the rate properties have been sold under the Right to Buy policy, leading to a chronic shortage of housing for people who need it most.”
The CPRE says that in Cornwall, where more than 15,000 families are on social housing waiting lists, the number of properties for short-term let grew by 661 per cent in the five years to 2021.
And in other areas it says half of the families on social housing waiting lists in South Lakeland could be accommodated in local properties available exclusively as holiday rentals; while Devon has seen 4,000 homes taken off the private rental market and 11,000 new short-term listings since 2016.
CPRE’s chief executive Roger Mortlock says: “Decades of inaction have led to an affordable housing crisis that is ripping the soul from our rural communities. Solutions do exist and the next government must set and deliver ambitious targets for new, genuinely affordable and social rented rural housing, curbing the boom of second homes and short-term lets.
“Record house prices and huge waiting lists for social housing are driving people out of rural communities, contributing to soaring levels of often hidden rural homelessness. We need urgent change to ensure we don’t end up with rural communities that are pricing out the very people needed to keep them vibrant.”
The CPRE recommends:
- Redefining ‘affordable housing’ to directly link to average local incomes;
- Increasing the minimum amount of genuinely affordable housing required by national planning policy and implement ambitious targets for the construction of social rented homes;
- Supporting local communities to deliver small-scale developments of genuinely affordable housing and make it easier for councils to purchase land at reasonable prices, enabling the construction of social housing and vital infrastructure;
- Introducing a register of second homes and short-term lets, with new powers for local authorities to levy additional council tax on second homes;
- Extending restrictions on the resale of ‘affordable housing’ to all parishes with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants to ensure local workers can continue to use properties, rather then allowing them to become second homes or holiday lets.
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For goodness sake stop all the over taxation. Over taxing the holiday industry isn't going to help. Areas like Cornwall rely heavily on tourism.
Treat traditional landlords in a conventional way from a tax point of view, sort out CGT indexation relief, make eco improvements fully tax deductible, make fault based evictions certain and rapid and generally treat landlords as valued professionals and the housing crisis will ease.
Wages are too low in rural areas for a great many people to buy standard houses. The choice is either build low cost housing or incentivise landlords to provide more housing in the PRS. Building companies aren't going to build if they can't make a good profit just as PRS landlords aren't going to retain or expand their portfolios if they can't make a profit.
Being a born and bred Cornishman and proud of it, I couldn’t agree more, Jo. Cornwall has relied on tourism throughout my lifetime. We complain about tourists, but know that we need them. Local businesses do not pay enough for the average local to be able to afford to buy. Council houses were a lifeline for many people in those days and were built and maintained by LOCAL Town councils. Since then the trend has been bigger is better with everything centralised either at County Hall or a Housing Association. Bigger has not been better!
Every holiday letting unit creates one local job according to the holiday guru Jim Hoseason
They are desperate, they also know what needs to be done but cannot do it 🤔 😞….. build millions of social properties. I actually feel sorry for them, there is no way out but a slow spiral into higher rents and homelessness 🆘
I'm not sure Social Housing in general is the answer.
Many Local Authorities are either bankrupt or on the verge of bankruptcy.
They have a horrendous history of financial mismanagement.
Some of the lowest standard housing is owned by Social Housing providers.
A great many people don't want to be told where they must live or how many rooms they can have.
In previous times (when we had standard taxation and fewer half baked regulations) the PRS was better able to adapt to specific housing demand. PRS landlords would buy the type of properties people wanted to rent.
Slap taxes on short term lets... Really? And ignore the fact that the Governments lack of investment in social housing is the real cause... Taxing everyone to the hilt isn't the answer. When are these idiots going to wake up and smell the coffee? ☕
Whilst I appreciate the problem and feel sorry for those unable to afford homes near to where they live. I can't help notice that those that invest in property do so, to avoid the inflation Ponzi scheme, and pensions that don't perform well.
Being a landlord is the latest ponzi Scheme held to ransom no exit plan allowed.
The lack of viable exit route is a major problem for various reasons.
Firstly it makes it unattractive for any new landlords to enter the industry with any intention of staying long term.
That makes it more likely more tenants will need to be evicted more often as those landlords sell up before the CGT is too horrendous.
For those of us who are already trapped by the staggeringly huge CGT liability we have already racked up the future is unfortunate. I'm not convinced it's good for tenants to have landlords shuffling round on Zimmer frames trying to change lightbulbs or unblock drains. While we could theoretically find maintenance companies to do these things for us how often do these companies let people down?
A great many of us entered the industry when taper relief existed. We planned our business model based on the tax conditions at the time. To effectively steal either our retirement or our pension is outrageous.
Interesting to note the govt now want to snoop into our bank accts if we receive a state pension - allegedly to track benefits fraud so why dont thet restrict their proposal to benefits claimants - becoz they will start means testing pensions is the theory - if true they seem quite at home with the idea of stealing your pension Jo!
Indeed. I have never known a government so determined to lose an election.
Jo .100% correct no exit plan allowed I made enquiries about selling one to reduce the artificial work load and burden imposed on us. Sell
now about 75k c/ gains then I am supposed to live 7 years which is extremely unlikely due to past career and events. So then another 40% inheritance tax kicks in but not on the remainder but on whole thing again as if you never paid anything and the 75k is gone as if it never existed, that 75k will already have had 40% tax paid on it to, what school of economics is that.
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