PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release

Friday 28 April 2017

RSN chief executive Graham Biggs said: "Housing is consistently rated as one of the top challenges facing rural communities across the country.

"Many people in rural areas find it difficult to afford their own home.

"Affordability is a real problem for people living and working in the countryside because wages are often low and house prices are high.

"Rural families frequently find themselves priced out of their local housing market – a situation which often forces them to move away from the communities in which they live and work.

"A solution to the rural housing crisis must be found – and a meaningful increase in delivery of affordable housing in rural villages and small towns secured – if we are to have a sustainable future for our rural communities."

Notes to Editors:

[1]1. The Housing - State of the Nation report was published by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee on Friday, 28 April 2017. Problems of homelessness and affordability likely to persist for years, it warns.

For details, visit http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/news-parliament-2015/housing-report-published-16-17/

Media contact:

Graham Biggs
Rural Services Network
T: 01588 674 922
M: 07966 790197
E: [email protected]

ENDS