Homes people can afford

We want to ensure there are enough low-cost homes to rent or buy in Leicestershire’s rural villages and market towns.

Villages across the country are suffering from a drain of local people who have to move away from the community in order to find affordable homes. Consequently these villages may become ‘dormitory’ settlements and cease to be thriving communities. They lose their local services, such as shops, post offices and pubs, simply because not enough local people use them. In order to sustain these villages, more affordable housing needs to be built.

We see it as important to the future sustainability of local communities under threat that they have a socially diverse population. Local people shouldn’t be driven out by not being able to afford houses in communities where they grew up and have family connections.

CPRE Leicestershire supports a policy of providing affordable housing in rural communities through the use of ‘rural exception sites’ that involve small developments of affordable homes, both for rent and shared ownership, next to, but outside village envelopes.