Project: The case for affordable rural housing: people, policy, and place
Research published 2025
Lead researchers & institutions:
Dr Tom Moore and Professor Richard Dunning at the University of Liverpool*
Professor Nick Gallent and Dr Andrew Purves at UCL*
* RTPI-accredited planning school
Funders
This research was commissioned and funded by Longleigh Foundation in partnership with Stonewater, the Fusion 21 Foundation, and the University of Liverpool.
Note: Findings and recommendations reflect the views of the researchers at the time of writing and are not necessarily the views of the RTPI
Key takeaways:
- This report highlights the lack of affordable housing in rural England and the importance of this to the sustainability of rural communities.
- It presents research findings on the barriers that make affordable rural housing provision hard to deliver.
- It offers ten recommendations to Government departments and agencies to help overcome these barriers.
Summary
There are severe shortages of affordable homes in rural communities, which can be detrimental to their sustainability and future. Rural homelessness has grown as a result with a wide range of negative social and economic impacts.
This study aimed to provide an overview of issues and challenges associated with the development of new rural social and affordable housing, and to offer practical solutions that address these barriers.
The research is based on 21 qualitative interviews with representatives of registered providers, local planning authorities, research and policy experts, and community representatives.
The study highlights that rural housing providers continue to face challenges associated with the costs of acquiring and developing land, an under-resourced planning system, and a lack of prioritisation of rural housing in funding and policy frameworks.
It identifies opportunities to enhance the provision of rural social and affordable housing through:
- reformed planning processes that can simplify and derisk development;
- new mechanisms to enable rural housing providers to acquire land;
- funding measures that provide consistent support to rural housing enablers and rural housing providers.
Recommendations
The report outlines a set of strategic reforms:
- Unlocking land
- Introduce a Community Right to Buy, modelled on Scotland’s Land Reform Act.
- Develop national landowner incentives, including tax relief for affordable housing.
- Planning reform
- Create a Rural Exception Site Planning Passport to streamline approval processes.
- Lower the 10-dwelling threshold to require affordable contributions from smaller rural schemes.
- Expand the use of Section 106 agreements to fund off-site affordable homes.
- Invest in planning workforce capacity, including expanding eligibility for Level 7 planner apprenticeships.
- Consistent and targeted funding
- Ensure annual monitoring of rural housing delivered with Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, assessing rural housing delivery as a proportion of the overall housing units delivered and against housing need.
- Stabilise funding for Rural Housing Enablers, who act as essential local brokers.
- Reopen the Community Housing Fund to support pre-development for community-led projects.
- Strategic coordination
- Rural housing must reflect England’s diverse geographies and governance structures.
- A place-based, multi-faceted approach is critical – avoiding one-size-fits-all solutions and ensuring rural housing is prioritised in devolution deals.
Full reference
Moore, T., Gallent, N., Purves, A. and Dunning, R. (2025) “The case for affordable rural housing: people, policy, and place.” Longleigh Foundation.