Housing: Rural Areas

(asked on 5th February 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to encourage local authorities to carry out housing needs assessments in villages that have not been allocated housing within local plans, but where there is likely to be a local need for housing.


Answered by
Kit Malthouse Portrait
Kit Malthouse
This question was answered on 13th February 2019

Local authorities should identify needs throughout their area, which should inform their spatial strategy and housing numbers for areas engaged in neighbourhood planning. Neighbourhood planning groups may wish to collect additional evidence about the nature of the need in their areas, to inform any housing policies that they wish to develop.

Through Neighbourhood Planning we are empowering and supporting local communities to bring forward neighbourhood plans which allocate their own housing sites and have so far committed over £26 million to support these activities.

Where any rural exception sites are proposed by applicants, they should be informed by clear evidence of a local need for affordable homes.

Reticulating Splines