Keeping Villages Alive
As the demand for houses in rural areas has grown, house prices and rents have been driven upwards. This coupled with the loss of council housing through the right to buy, has left many of the County’s villages without any housing which is affordable to local people on low or moderate incomes.
Without a balance in the types of housing, rural communities become unsustainable and lose their vitality. They may become dormitory settlements for commuters or villages with an ageing population with no younger people to carry on the community life in the village.
Leicestershire Rural Housing Association is committed to working closely with rural communities to solve village housing problems. Such local partnerships are seen as vital to success.
The type of housing promoted by LRHA is frequently built on ‘exception sites’ – land which would not normally receive planning consent. The planning agreements drawn up with landowners and the Local Authority ensure that such homes are only let to people who can demonstrate that they have strong links with the area. Our involvement in such projects ensures this will happen, and that local circumstances are taken into account.
LRHA also exists to promote increased awareness of the importance of affordable housing to rural communities, and ensure it is a priority from a strategic and funding perspective. It achieves this by feeding into and being actively involved with, the production of local housing strategies. It also works with other agencies on rural initiatives.
We welcome approaches from individuals, parish councils, landowners, local authorities and other housing associations who recognise the need for village housing and are willing to work with us to achieve our aims.