Councils around the country are gearing up for this year’s local democracy week, which takes place on Wednesday, 8th October 2008 at 9:30am Location: Hilton London Metropole
We’ll be attending this Housing Corporation event about the complex challenges of ensuring the right mix of housing is delivered for rural communities. ‘Housing: Investing in Rural Futures’ will help ensure organisations are best placed to benefit from the forthcoming changes in affordable housing provision and regeneration, as well as making sure you are fully appraised in the latest rural housing policy: http://www.housing-investinginruralfuturesevent.co.uk/

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6 October 2008
© Commission for Rural Communities

Housing pressures in British cities partly result from the net migration of people to Britain over the past ten years. Immigration has also changed the nature of minority ethnic communities, while longestablished minority ethnic communities are changing with successive generations. What does recent research tell us about the nature of these changes, and their impact on policy and practice in housing and neighbourhood renewal? Download: http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/pdf/2305.pdf

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7 October 2008
© Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Ministers today said that they will continue with their fight against fuel poverty, as Environment Secretary Hilary Benn holds meetings with energy suppliers and the home insulation industry to discuss how to speed up work on increasing energy efficiency in the UK’s homes. The pledge comes as Defra and BERR jointly published the Sixth Annual Progress Report for the UK Fuel Poverty Strategy, and follows the recent announcement of a £1 billion Home Energy Saving Programme to increase fuel efficiency and help for vulnerable households.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: “Since that announcement the Government has launched a major advertising campaign to encourage energy efficiency and advise people of the assistance available. This has resulted in almost 57,000 calls to our Act on CO2 helpline in the fortnight since the announcement. This is triple the number of calls normally received, so clearly people are responding to rising fuel bills. Today I met with energy suppliers and the home insulation industry to stress the need for all of us to work together as fast as possible to make more homes energy efficient, and to discuss with them the opportunities for bringing forward insulation activity so the maximum number of people are able to benefit this winter.”

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2 October 2008
© Department for Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (National)

The UK’s first major fund to build permanently affordable homes by Community Land Trusts (CLTs) has been established by independent charitable funders the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Tudor Trust and Venturesome, the social investment arm of the Charities Aid Foundation. CLTs are organisations that create affordable housing, to buy and to rent, for people in urban and rural areas by securing low cost land and building homes that remain partly owned by the communities on a permanent basis. The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Tudor Trust have provided an initial investment of £1.75m towards a £2m fund to support the building of permanently affordable homes by CLTs. Venturesome is underwriting an additional £250,000 and will operate the fund on a day to day basis with Esmée Fairbairn and the Tudor Trust involved in the decision making.

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2 October 2008
© CAF

Nearly 700,000 people are now stuck on waiting lists for an affordable home in rural England – the National Housing Federation and Campaign to Protect Rural England warned today. Over the last five years, the number of people waiting for an affordable home in country areas has soared by 37%, up from 507,757 in 2003 to 695,735 last year. That means that on average 14,494 people have been added to housing waiting lists in rural areas every month over the last four years. The situation is now so serious that the Federation and CPRE are today launching a charter, Save Rural England, Build Affordable Homes, containing an eight point blueprint, setting out how the supply of affordable homes could be significantly, and appropriately, increased in rural communities.

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29 September 2008
© CPRE

This Round-up evaluates the strategic and policy context for housing development and neighbourhood renewal. The authors argue that integrating different housing tenures is an important prerequisite for developing ‘housing of choice’, but that there are many other aspects of sustainable communities which need to be given equal weight. Download PDF:http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/pdf/2295.pdf

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25 September 2008
© Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Annual house prices in England and Wales fell by 4.6 per cent in August to prices last seen in spring 2007, according to the latest figures from Land Registry. The average house price is £174,493 which is also a decrease month-on-month of 1.9 per cent. London also experienced a decrease in its average property value over the last 12 months, with a movement of -3.2 per cent - taking the average London house price to £336,620. Hartlepool experienced the highest annual change with an increase of 4.8 per cent, taking its average property price to £117,350.

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25 September 2008
© Land Registry (National)

Current UK house-building projections fall ‘significantly short of requirements’ and will result in increased overcrowding, homelessness and social exclusion, according to the Town and Country Planning Association. The first independent study to map new projections for population growth with housing supply reveals a need for an extra 17,000 new homes each year. The government has set a target to build an additional three million homes by 2020, (214,000 each year), but latest population figures suggest at least 231,000 homes per year will be needed.
Revised population figures, released in 2007, estimated the population of England to be almost three million higher than previously predicted by 2026.

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24 September 2008
© NewStart

Average house prices are £15% higher in the countryside than in urban areas, says a report. The fourth annual Halifax Rural Housing Review, which uses house price data to calculate rural house price movements, was published on Saturday (13 September). It covers 123 local authorities in Great Britain which are defined as rural areas, according to ONS classifications. The review shows that the average level of house prices in rural areas is £235,324 - some 15% higher than the average urban house price of £204,290. Average property prices in rural areas are 7.3 times average annual earnings compared with a ratio of 6.1 in urban areas. Seven of the ten least affordable rural local authorities are in the South West. North Devon is the least affordable with an average house price (£252,792) that is 9.1 times local annual average earnings (£27,853). All ten of the most expensive rural local authority areas are in southern England.

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24 September 2008
© Rural Services Network

FirstStop Care Advice is an independent, free service providing information and advice about care and housing in later life. It is provided jointly by Counsel and Care, Elderly Accommodation Counsel, Help the Aged and NHFA Limited. Our aim is to expand the options and choices you might consider, and provide enough information about them to help you decide what is right for you. This is an online free resource.

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22 September 2008
© First Stop Care Advice