Ahead of Rural Housing Week, the RSN was delighted to host its seminar focusing on rural affordable housing on Wednesday 29^th June with almost 100 delegates in attendance, one of our most popular yet!

The session was opened by Kerry Booth, Chief Executive Designate of the RSN who set the scene for delegates, stressing the importance of affordable housing to our rural communities.  She highlighted the positive statements in the Levelling Up White Paper which states that ‘Without enough housing, productivity growth will be constrained as the engine of the economy-labour mobility is slowed and the benefits realised from the location of people, business and finance in the same area is undermined.’

However the RSN is concerned that without targeted policy to support the rural economy, and enable rural areas to have a range of affordable and mixed tenure accommodation for rural communities, it is in danger of being left behind.

Chris Parsons, a Board member of Hastoe Housing explored the topic of ‘Carbon, costs and comfort.’ He set out the ways that Hastoe has been working to ensure sustainable development, and their focus on a new homes standard that creates well designed, energy efficient homes.
- You can read more about the New Build Standard at this link.

Jenny Divine from the RPTI shared her thoughts on the topic of ‘Levelling up or letting down rural communities’, and amongst a wide range of issues, she touched on concerns over the influx of people moving to rural areas, which increases the price of accommodation often out of the reach of local workers.  She emphasised how rural areas are diverse, dynamic and innovative and their success relies on a good supply of housing that is affordable for rural residents to both buy and rent.

Shaughan Dolan, from the National Housing Federation explored ‘Affordable rural housing during the cost of living crisis’ and explored the work of the Rural Housing Network who are working to support rural housing.  He also highlighted the problem of homelessness as a hidden issue in rural communities and shared how delegates can contribute to the research at this link

The Seminar Programme provided by the Rural Services Network is free of charge to member organisations of the RSN and you can book your place at a future event at this link