More Than 2,000 Villages Overlooked for Affordable Homes, Says CLA - Seite 2

The report also calls on the Government to step in to address the housing needs of those communities cut off from the Local Plan by requiring a housing needs assessment in villages not allocated any housing.

Mr Breitmeyer said: "Without more opportunities for young people to remain in the local area these small communities face an uncertain future. We want people to be able to live and work in the countryside but they are being held back by a lack of affordable homes. Mandatory housing needs assessments will improve our understanding of the rural housing crisis and will help towards building desperately needed homes in the right areas."

Click here to read Sustainable Villages - making rural communities fit for the future

NOTES TO EDITORS: 

1.  Top 10 areas identified by the CLA with the most unsustainable villages:

   
    Cornwall                      213
    Wiltshire                     168
    Central Lincolnshire          132
    South Oxfordshire             102
    East Riding of Yorkshire      101
    South Worcestershire           97
    Kings Lynn & West Norfolk      84
    South Northamptonshire         82
    Bassetlaw                      77
    Huntingdonshire                75

2.  An unsustainable settlement is one that ranks towards the bottom of a settlement hierarchy as it is not judged to have the necessary level of services to warrant a housing allocation in the Local Plan.

It is therefore either denied any development or has significant limitations on the type of development that can take place in the settlement (e.g. only infilling or windfall sites permitted).

Settlements that have had their settlement boundaries removed are also classed as unsustainable due to the restrictions this places on development.

3.  26 of out of the 70 mostly rural local authorities surveyed by the CLA do not list their villages deemed as 'unsustainable' in their Local Plan so the total number is likely to be significantly higher than those identified by the CLA. In the case of the 2,154 villages, both housing allocations via the Local Plan and economic development are either highly restrictive or not permissible.