One in five families in rural England is living below the poverty line according to a report by the Commission for Rural Communities. The decline in services and less affordable housing are major factors in this trend, it said. The average house price in rural areas is more than £40,000 more expensive than in towns or cities, and it was worse the more isolated the area you live.
English Partnerships attracted a record £1.27 billion in private sector investment for 2007/8, a rise of more than 24 per cent on the previous year. It also exceeded all its ‘core’ targets, including reclaiming 289 hectares of brownfield land, while starting more than 11,000 housing units and completing more than 6,500 housing units.
However a report by Brian Pomeroy into the future of private shared equity market, which the government had hoped would attract billions of pounds in private sector cash, has concluded that there has been very little investment as a result of the credit crunch. It said that despite a variety of shared equity schemes, there had only been one private sector product launched and this has since been ditched due to a lack of interest.
The government has also been called on to ease public concern about migrants, by cracking down on landlords of houses of multiple occupation (HMOs). A Communities and Local Government committee said that poor management of HMOs, resulting in uncollected rubbish, fires and run down buildings, was creating community concern over the effects of migration. The committee called for the government to make it easier for councils to regulate HMOs.
Meanwhile a council has taken the initiative and set up a scheme to help mortgage holders and tenants who face eviction to save their homes. Fenland District Council and Citizens Advice (CAB) are running the scheme – providing an advocacy service and help in consolidating debts; while the government has agreed to fund the attendance of CAB experts at the county court eviction sessions. A local councillor said that the council thought it ‘prudent’ to have a scheme in place before the real impact of the economic downturn begins.
Plans for an eco-town near Cambridge have been shelved after the owners of the land refused to sell it to developers. Following pressure from the residents of the nearest conventional town, owners the Wellcome Trust decided not to sell the land to Tesco, who had been planning to build 12,800 houses on the site. It is the fifth eco-town proposal to be dropped, and developers have also already pulled out of 4 of the 15 proposed new towns.
New research has analysed some of Europe’s most exemplary eco-town projects and identified the critical factors behind their success. The main findings were that the UK could avoid further problems by ensuring that there is enough funding for infrastrucure in advance of the development. The analysis also suggested there should be more focus on locations, mix of uses and tenures.
And finally Dogs Trust, a charity to rehome abandoned dogs, wants landlords to be more open to allowing tenants to keep dogs in rented premises. Currently three in four landlords do not allow pets in properties, and with the demand for rented homes growing, the Trust suspects that the number of dogs they receive will increase. A spokesperson from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) said it was ‘broadly supportive’ of the Trust but said it would struggle to change attitudes.