The potential for affordable housing to breathe new life into rural communities by sustaining shops, village schools and local amenities is explored in a new podcast produced by Housing Plus Group.
Released this week to mark Rural Housing Week, the podcast considers some of the additional challenges faced by housing providers seeking to develop new homes in rural areas. It also features a Staffordshire mother who has campaigned in support of new affordable housing in her village.
Housing Plus Group has pledged to start work on 2,000 new homes for rent, shared ownership and outright sale in communities throughout Shropshire, Staffordshire and Telford & Wrekin by 2023. The Group has expressed a commitment to providing some of these new homes in small developments targeting the housing crisis in rural communities.
In the podcast, panel members Kerry Bolister and Gerry McFall of Housing Plus Group, join Sarah Finnegan of the National Housing Federation and villager Lynne, who explains what affordable local housing would mean for her family. It also reveals how Lynne knocked on doors to change the minds of neighbours who were initially opposed to a proposal for new homes.
“There is a life story inside every home that we build,” said Housing Plus Group Development Director Kerry Bolister. “In this discussion, Lynne provided a powerful reminder, during Rural Housing Week, of the pressing need for locally-focused rural housing solutions.”
The discussion on the benefits of affordable homes in rural areas, and their importance to sustainable communities, is the subject of the first episode of In House series of podcasts from Housing Plus Group, and can be found on your favourite podcast app or by following this link.
