Action with Communities in Rural Kent, English Rural Housing Association and Kent Housing Group provided a lunch time session planned for parish councils and rural landowners, and open to KHG members, attended by 40 people. The session highlighted many people cannot afford to buy a home on the open market or afford to rent privately and that helping people to remain in their rural area helps keep the area vibrant.
Kent Community Housing Hub explained how Local Needs Affordable Housing are often delivered a rural exception sites, often 8-10 homes, in a village, that are affordable housing. These can be affordable rented, shared ownership, First Homes and housing for older people.
English Rural Housing Association described their work with parish councils, local authorities and landowners to provide and develop more homes in rural Kent. Their homes are occupied by those with a proven local connection and none have been sold. They use local vernacular, materials and tradespeople where possible.
Action with Communities in Rural Kent are an enabling service to help people develop their own housing projects to create the homes they want to live in. The main types of housing are community land trust, cohousing, cooperatives, self build and self help bring empty homes back into use. They have resources on their www.kentcommunityhousinghub.org and you can subscribe to receive their newsletter.
Kent Housing Group worked with partners to update its Guide to Developing Affordable Homes in Rural Communities to include First Homes. https://www.kenthousinggroup.org.uk/protocols/guide-developing-affordable-homes-rural-communities/ It provides a collection of factsheets that are an easy to use guide for anyone interested in developing affordable housing in rural areas.
You can access a recording of the session here https://youtu.be/YTWolmW9m28
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