A major new research report tackling England’s rural housing crisis was launched on Monday 7th July at Stonewater’s new homes development in Loxwood, Sussex.
The report marks a pivotal moment for rural communities facing deepening housing pressures due to a chronic shortage of affordable homes.
Commissioned by Longleigh Foundation in partnership with Stonewater, the Fusion21 Foundation, and the University of Liverpool, the research offers practical solutions that address identified barriers to rural delivery.
The work was undertaken by housing experts Dr Tom Moore and Professor Richard Dunning at the University of Liverpool, and Professor Nick Gallent and Dr Andrew Purves at UCL.
Despite government targets to build 1.5 million homes, rural areas remain largely excluded from strategic planning and investment. As a result, homelessness is rising, local economies are weakening and young people and key workers are being pushed out of the communities they grew up in.
The new report draws on 21 expert interviews with housing providers, local planning authorities, community groups and policy organisations.
It identifies five systemic barriers to rural housing delivery — land acquisition, planning constraints, funding gaps, community resistance and institutional fragmentation — and proposes a comprehensive plan to overcome them.
Rural housing: A national opportunity
Investment in rural housing isn’t just a social necessity — it’s an economic opportunity. Independent studies (Pragmatix Advisory, 2020; CEBR, 2024) show that rural affordable housing projects stimulate job creation, boost tax revenues and ease pressure on the NHS and welfare systems.
But this potential remains untapped due to long-standing obstacles:
Key Barriers Identified:
- Land availability: Landowners are hesitant to release land without incentives and land acquisition tools need to be strengthened.
- Planning delays: The planning system lacks resources and capacity and the use of Rural Exception Sites is limited.
- Funding gaps: Rural projects face higher development costs, with fragmented or short-term financial support.
- Undervalued Rural Housing Enablers: These roles play a vital coordination role between communities, developers and landowners – but many posts are part-time, grant reliant and at risk – and without their input, many affordable rural schemes fail to progress.
- Institutional fragmentation: Devolution and lack of capacity have led to uneven regional support.
A four-point strategy for unlocking delivery
The report outlines a set of strategic reforms:
1. Unlocking land
- Introduce a Community Right to Buy, modelled on Scotland’s Land Reform Act.
- Develop national landowner incentives, including tax relief for affordable housing.
2. Planning Reform
- Create a Rural Exception Site Planning Passport to streamline approval processes.
- Lower the 10-dwelling threshold to require affordable contributions from smaller rural schemes.
- Expand the use of Section 106 agreements to fund off-site affordable homes.
- Invest in planning workforce capacity, including expanding eligibility for Level 7 planner apprenticeships.
3. Consistent and Targeted Funding
- Ensure annual monitoring of rural housing delivered with Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, assessing rural housing delivery as a proportion of the overall housing units delivered and against housing need.
- Stabilise funding for Rural Housing Enablers, who act as essential local brokers.
- Reopen the Community Housing Fund to support pre-development for community-led projects.
4. Strategic Coordination
- Rural housing must reflect England’s diverse geographies and governance structures.
- A place-based, multi-faceted approach is critical — avoiding one-size-fits-all solutions and ensuring rural housing is prioritised in devolution deals.
Longleigh Foundation and Stonewater colleagues were joined by partners, including the National Housing Federation (NHF), at an event celebrating the report’s release in Loxwood, Sussex, on Monday 7th July.
It marked the first day of the NHF’s Rural Housing Week 2025, which aims to highlight the many social and economic benefits of affordable housing to rural communities.
Dr Tom Moore, Senior Lecturer in Housing and Planning, Department of Geography and Planning at University of Liverpool, said: “This research highlights the deep-rooted structural barriers that have hindered rural housing for decades. But it also offers real solutions. With the right reforms, consistent funding and clear prioritisation, we can unlock rural potential, build homes and strengthen communities.”
Aileen Edmunds, Chief Executive of Longleigh Foundation, commented: “This research makes clear what many working in rural communities already know: delivering affordable homes in these areas is harder, but no less urgent. Yet rural housing has rarely been a central consideration in national policy, despite the scale of need. At Longleigh, we funded this research to help change that – because when truly affordable homes aren’t built in rural places, people are forced to leave the communities they call home, and the future of those communities is put at risk.”
James Bradbury, Group Director of Growth and Development at Stonewater, said: “Stonewater is committed to rural housing because we’ve seen the impact it makes. But delivering these developments is becoming harder. The report launched at our Loxwood site outlines the urgent reforms needed to turn intent into action.”
Alistair Smyth, Director of Policy and Research at the National Housing Federation, commented: “The rural housing crisis is characterised by particular challenges, including higher costs, hidden homelessness and rapidly increasing waiting lists for social housing. We welcome this new research, which contains a number of recommendations that together could deliver more social and affordable rural housing in communities where it’s desperately needed.”
Jo Hannan, Head of Fusion21 Foundation, added: “The Fusion21 Foundation is proud to support this important research as it aligns closely with our funding priorities around health and wellbeing, employment and skills and financial inclusion and resilience. While the challenges highlighted are complex, it is encouraging to see positive ways to potentially navigate the issues faced by our housing members and the communities they operate in.”
You can read the new report here.
Header image: Representatives from the University of Liverpool, Longleigh Foundation and Stonewater alongside Alistair Smyth, Director of Policy and Research at the National Housing Federation
