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The Government today set out its proposals for helping rural communities to thrive in the 21st Century by providing more affordable housing and greater freedom to develop strong local economies.

Responding to Matthew Taylor MP’s 2008 Review into issues facing rural communities, Housing Minister Margaret Beckett and Rural Affairs Minister Huw Irranca-Davies set out their proposals to help create strong and diverse rural communities which are able to tackle their own unique challenges at a local level.

The Review has identified both the specific challenges facing different rural areas and the similar issues facing both rural and urban economies. The Government will therefore give Local Authorities more flexibility to tackle the issues their communities face and the new measures announced today will help:

- Small villages to provide the homes they need for local families priced out of the housing market by encouraging local authorities and developers to identify “exception” sites that can provide more affordable homes;

- Rural businesses to get planning permission for sites that are suitable given their rural setting through a refreshed approach to planning policy that recognises their distinct needs.

- Medium-sized rural towns to develop sustainable new neighbourhoods rather than building soulless housing estates on the edge of town, including through a new £1m competition to encourage best practice;

To help underline the important role rural areas can play in delivering economic prosperity, a new single policy statement will be published combining existing planning guidance aimed at delivering sustainable economic development in urban and rural areas and town centres. This new single Planning Policy Statement will be published for consultation soon.

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett said:

“We simply must take action to overcome the unsustainable pressures facing the future of rural communities. All too often the high cost of homes and low wages are pricing young families out of their communities, with the average rural home costing up to ten times the average salary in some rural areas.

“These subtle but important changes are the key to getting the balance right between protection and development in the countryside. This will give local communities the flexibility they need to take the right decisions on the individual issues they face.”

Rural Affairs Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said:

“Good, affordable housing is critical to rural communities and local economies - rural businesses struggle to find staff when so many people are forced to leave to find better housing and opportunities elsewhere.

“The Government is committed to rural communities, and as the rural heart of government Defra will do everything it can, working closely with the Department for Communities and Local Government and others, to continue to support measures that have a positive impact on rural housing and businesses.”

Matthew Taylor MP said:

“This is an important day for the countryside. No change is no option - the alternative to sustaining and rejuvenating rural communities is to fossilise them, in time forcing out the families and working people without whom farms can’t be tended, shops and services kept running, village schools kept open. My report, ‘Living Working Countryside’, was about supporting rural communities across England. Without the action promised by the Government today in response to my report, all too often our countryside would face local people priced out, local services closing, and ever fewer and worse paid jobs."

The latest statistics from the Commission for Rural Communities show that in rural areas the average house price last year was more than seven times the average household income, compared to a ratio of 6.3 times the average income in urban areas. These affordability pressures are greatest in the smallest hamlets, where the average price house is almost ten times the average income.

While the Government has accepted almost all of the 48 recommendations of the Taylor Review, we have decided against the proposal of a trial limiting second homes in National Parks. The Review itself acknowledged the real issues of practicality such a policy may face, and the Government believes there are more innovative ways of providing the affordable homes that rural communities need without interfering with the legitimate rights of second home owners.