A countryside body is blaming the government’s failure to provide affordable housing and the rise in short lets for a homelessness surge in rural communities.

A report from the Commission for the Protection of Rural England claims that the countryside crisis is being worsened by high house prices, stagnating wages and an increasing number of second homes and short term lets.

And it says the countryside, where levels of homelessness have leapt 40 per cent in five years, is being drained of skills, economic activity and vital public services.

The charity claims: “There is an extreme disparity between rural house prices, which are higher than those in other parts of the country, and rural wages, which are much lower. House prices in the countryside increased at close to twice the rate of those in urban areas in the five years to 2022. While the average cost of a home jumped 29 per cent and is now £419,000, rural earnings increased by just 19 per cent to a total of £25,600.”

It says over 300,000 people are on waiting lists for social rented housing in rural England, an increase of over 10 per cent since 2018, and at the current rate of construction, it would take 89 years to offer a home to everyone on the waiting list. 

The report continues: “Current planning policies allow for the building of new ‘affordable’ housing costing anything up to 80 per cent of market value. This means that in many rural areas the ‘affordable homes’ being provided are often anything but. Local authorities have not replaced social housing at the rate properties have been sold under the Right to Buy policy, leading to a chronic shortage of housing for people who need it most.”

The CPRE says that in Cornwall, where more than 15,000 families are on social housing waiting lists, the number of properties for short-term let grew by 661 per cent in the five years to 2021. 

And in other areas it says half of the families on social housing waiting lists in South Lakeland could be accommodated in local properties available exclusively as holiday rentals; while Devon has seen 4,000 homes taken off the private rental market and 11,000 new short-term listings since 2016.

CPRE’s chief executive Roger Mortlock says: “Decades of inaction have led to an affordable housing crisis that is ripping the soul from our rural communities. Solutions do exist and the next government must set and deliver ambitious targets for new, genuinely affordable and social rented rural housing, curbing the boom of second homes and short-term lets.

“Record house prices and huge waiting lists for social housing are driving people out of rural communities, contributing to soaring levels of often hidden rural homelessness. We need urgent change to ensure we don’t end up with rural communities that are pricing out the very people needed to keep them vibrant.”

The CPRE recommends:

– Redefining ‘affordable housing’ to directly link to average local incomes;

– Increasing the minimum amount of genuinely affordable housing required by national planning policy and implement ambitious targets for the construction of social rented homes;

– Supporting local communities to deliver small-scale developments of genuinely affordable housing and make it easier for councils to purchase land at reasonable prices, enabling the construction of social housing and vital infrastructure;

– Introducing a register of second homes and short-term lets, with new powers for local authorities to levy additional council tax on second homes;

– Extending restrictions on the resale of ‘affordable housing’ to all parishes with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants to ensure local workers can continue to use properties, rather then allowing them to become second homes or holiday lets.