The fifth paper in CPRE Housing Foresight series identifies a range of solutions to increase and sustain affordable housing in rural areas. These include better funding and guidance, incentives to identify suitable sites, and rural exemptions from national policies which restrict rural affordable housing.

This brochure considers the need for affordable housing in rural communities and how it can be built to best meet the needs of local people in the long term. Prepared by the National Housing Federation in conjunction with CPRE and other partners.

CPRE's third Housing Foresight paper argues that large scale brownfield sites require a comprehensive approach to development which should adopt best practice from Europe.
It also considers the development of small-scale brownfield sites in England, finding that a register of these sites together with a flexible approach to space standards can make the most of their potential.

To investigate the extent to which brownfield is a viable option for development, CPRE commissioned construction analysts Glenigan to compare the speed of residential development on brownfield sites with development on greenfield, once these sites have been granted planning permission.

Making the case for well planned, higher density, mixed use urban development: meeting housing needs, improving quality of life and protecting the environment.

Land is a precious resource, and must be used wisely. CPRE supports a ‘brownfield first, greenfield last’ strategy as a general principle. However, just because a site is brownfield does not mean it should necessarily be developed.

CPRE believes that a healthy, thriving countryside is important for everyone, no matter where they live. Our approach to housing policy embodies this belief. Good planning should provide everyone with a decent home they can afford. While housing development can have a significant landscape impact we believe it is possible to avoid sporadic development in the countryside and the unsustainable sprawl of our towns and cities. Meeting the housing needs of rural communities is particularly important if they are to thrive. In the national context of a growing and changing population it is important to meet the need for new housing in England. This document outlines how CPRE believes this can be done without unnecessarily damaging the countryside.

We all have the right to a home we can afford to live in, wherever we are. CPRE’s response to the independent Affordable Housing Commission, chaired by Lord Best, argues that the sustainability of rural communities depends on providing good homes that local people can afford. We note that, while the causes of unaffordable housing are largely similar across urban and rural areas, the impacts on rural communities are distinct and profound.

Our response focuses on four key policy areas in need of reform, if we are to deliver the homes our villages and market towns need to thrive:

1. The inflated cost of land.
2. A lack of capital investment in high quality social housing.
3. A flawed definition of affordability tied to the market rather than to local incomes.
4. A planning system which holds local authorities accountable for the failure of the private housebuilding industry to deliver enough homes.

We look at how these challenges play out in a rural context, and what changes could improve the system so that communities get more of the things they want from development.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England commissioned University of the West of England (UWE) researchers to calculate an accurate figure for housing capacity on suitable brownfield land and specify how such land might be brought forward for development. To explore this further, the report considers the economic and policy drivers for brownfield development and how they can bring sites back into use, and analyses a number of local authority approaches to identifying land and engaging with local communities.